where?

it only requires a link.

Which is clearly a distraction ie trying to concentrate on the road and also what's being said direction wise.

If you need to ask that, I hope you don't drive.


Where did in an ideal world, rather than a realistic world get lost in the translation here, which has been my premise all along.

You spoke of what was done in 'the good old days', would that be realistic or ideal?

What you wrote didn't really make that much sense.


Not at all. I've come across people who presumed that deaf people couldn't drive because they wouldn't be able to hear other road users around them. For all I knew when typing that part of the reply you could be of the same view. I made a valid point. The lights are there to attract attention too; so it's not always necessary to hear an emergency services vehicle approaching. In fact as I'm spending a bit of time in and around Salford Royal hospital at the moment I have noticed that the ambulances leaving on emergency calls don't use their sirens on within the hospital grounds. They use lights only.

All I'm doing is replying to your position that smoking is this big distraction for drivers. My position is that I don't believe it to be so, and that anyone who can't hold a fag whilst driving really has some bigger problems to deal with. If you have a counter-argument that stands up to scrutiny then let's hear it.

April has a very valid point.

There are lots of roads where it would be too busy, or too crowded with parked cars, or too dangerous or even against the law to pull up. By the time one has found a place that is safe then the driver could be a mile or more out of their way. Not every road in Britain is a quiet suburban back street with plenty of parking. Most major city centres are a prime example. Is that not something you can appreciate?

Not to mention tooting about trying to get the wretched thing out of the packet!

What next? Forbidding conversation with the driver because it's distracting? Decades ago someone was pulled up by police for reaching over and giving his girlfriend a cuddle - at 10.30 at night with nothing else on the road doing 20mph!

Well said.
Ignoring any health damage and deaths the purist anti-smokers cause from their air pollution and based on their supposed concerns about road accidents, deaths and the reality, we should drive alone in complete silence and find somewhere to stop if we can't keep our eyes permanently glued to the road and both hands on the wheel.

Why not just give up and stay indoors (where the majority of accidents actually happen)

Probably more dangerous than anything else. If I dropped my phone between my legs whilst driving I'd leave it.. If I dropped a fag, I'd be scrambling to make a drifting halt across 3 lanes of traffic to grab it!

I've often fancied driving into one of those, just for irony reasons. But I do agree there's too much roadside clutter. Or we should add these-

https://nationalsafetysigns.com.au/w...of-contact.png

as additional safety advice, not just for Reliant Robin drivers.

As for smoking, the 'safety' argument usually demonstrates how dumb people are. I think Harriet Harman called for a total car smoking ban because she thought smokers took both hands off the wheel to smoke.. But then ISTR she also drove into a parked car while on a mobile, which kinda proved my point. Banning children from cars would do more for road safety.

Would posters agree with me that holding a fag and trying to drive means you are not in full control of the car.

Importantly, and almost everyone will agree as they must have experience of this seeing this, EG, fag smokers/clowns throwing out fag ends out of their vehclie, more often than lot it lands harmlessly on the road, pavement but it can land on or in some ones car and damge theri seat/carpet or worse still land in a child seat.

A while back a van driver threw out a fag end, dropped between the top of my bonnet and screen, smoke was still coming out of it was it was still lit, imagine i had the window open, easily landed in my car or people with children in baby seats at times drive with their window slightly ajar.

Smoking and driving does not make sense and must be banned.

More and more clowns that smoke throw out their fag end as most newer cars do not have ash trays.

Nope. It's very easy to stay in full control with a cigarette stuck between index and ring finger. It doesn't prevent you from having full control of your steering.

Non-smokers can even try this for themselves. Take a convenient carrot stick and assume the position.. ie hold it like you would a cigarette. Close your eyes, and see if you can get the carrot in your mouth.

If you can't do that, then smokers are the least of your driving worries.


That's usually only a risk if someone's driving closer to your bumper than they should be.. Or you're aiming it at them for that reason..

You would say that. How on earth can you have full control in an emergency with a lit fag in your hand stuck between your fingers??





Are you for real? What I stated happens on dual carriage ways with built up traffic, vehicles side by side slow to stand stop moving traffic or are you going to tell me there are no dual carriageways in the UK that has relatively slow moving traffic between 20/30 mph?

Good luck with the campaign. I'm sure this thread on DS will make a huge difference.

Thank you for your support!

Why doesn't someone invent an in-car hands free cigarette holder so that smokers can smoke while driving while keeping both hands on the wheel?

Give it a try. You'll be surprised how easy it is.

What's wrong? Did you not get the attention or reaction you wanted the first time around so have taken to repeating yourself ... or are you just bumping your own thread?

Define "full control of the car " for us.


Lot's of things can happen.... An asteroid could hit the earth and wipe out nearly all life on the planet... but we aren't hiding in caves. An oncoming driver could stray over the white line and smash in to your car at a closing speed in excess of 80mph.... but that doesn't stop us having roads where the only thing separating the two opposing flows of traffic is a bit of white paint.

It doesn't take much imagination to dream up all kinds of scary scenarios. But before starting some kind of campaign to ban this or that you should really look in to the statistical probabilities. I understand you having a worrying experience and how that has skewed your perception. That isolated incident isn't justification enough to create a much bigger problem.

Nicotine is addictive. Withdrawl causes all sorts of issues. There's a list here . When you call for a ban on smoking during driving because of the remote chance that a cigarette butt might end up in your car then I automatically weigh that against the increased risk of a serious road traffic accident because the driver is distracted by their longing for a cigarette at the end of a journey. In short then, do I want tired, irritable or anxious drivers piloting more than a tonne of metal at speed and in close proximity to other vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists etc just so you can feel safe because an infinitesimally smaller risk has been eliminated? The answer is a resounding No.


That issue can be resolved by informing drivers of the penalties, and possibly by making use if dash-cam footage for enforcement, and by the sale of aftermarket clip on ashtrays in the same way that hands-free kits are sold for mobiles. It doesn't need a ban, just better management.

No.



Lets just ban you from leaving your house as you're a public menace!

Well..firstly, I try to pay attention so haven't really needed to do emergencies. But assuming the standard smoker's hold, and that allowing both hands to stay on the wheel.. What kind of emergency do you think it might interfere with? If you look at a standard dashboard, you'll probably notice that the most important controls aren't on the right.. Which is a design feature to keep that hand doing the important stuff, like steering.

But in any real emergency, the most that's likely to happen would be an unfortunate ash drop. Or if the airbags deployed, they'd stub the fag out anyway.. Or maybe the hot end would burn a hole in the bag so it's easier to deflate once recovered from the 'WTF?' moment.


Most assuredly. And I even have a smoking jacket!


Well, there's the M4.. But there's also a thing called 'gravity', and another thing called 'aerodynamics'. A car has better aerodynamics than a fag end, which means at low speeds, it's less likely to bother a car behind you..

Probably a good idea to ban him or her from a keyboard for the same reason.

I remember in the late Seventies and through most of the Eighties, both myself and the girl I used to take to work smoked on the way there. We were totally oblivious to what must have been the horrific stench from our clothes, but that was probably because you could hardly see across the office for smoke when you got there.

I can remember going to flick the end of my cigarette through the open car window, when the entire lit end became detached and went down my open necked shirt.

That must have been awful. Easily caused a horrific accident.

These parasites that throw their fag ends out of cars and that about 99% of them as most cars last several years don't have ash tray. I wonder what state the property they live in is.

Smoking and driving is a big no, no. Then these clowns not just little our roads/pavements with their garbage but put at risk other road users against by the danger of their fag end dropping in someone else's car, or someone's child's pushchair/pram as they travel along the pavement.