RE: German MPs call for smoking ban
Wednesday 4th May 2005
First phones, now smokingBanning things is becoming addictive. According to news agency Reuters, German lawmakers want to ban smoking while driving on the grounds that it's dangerous.
German MPs call for smoking ban
No puffing while driving, say legislators
First phones, now smoking
"The dangers of causing an accident rise drastically when you smoke and drive," said Peter Danckert of the ruling Social Democrats. "I want a complete ban on smoking for drivers."
Following the passage of legislation in Germany of a law outlawing the use of cell phones for drivers, Katherina Reiche of the opposition Christian Democrats agreed, saying, "Cigarettes are just as much of a distraction as cell phones," she said. "We need a new law banning it with fines."
Meanwhile, German motoring club ADAC spokesman Rainer Hillgaertner said, "Eating chocolate bars, bananas or fish sandwiches while driving is also dangerous."
Of course, the safest thing to do in a moving car is nothing but drive. But how far can legislators go? In the end, it's going to come down to a political judgement -- and it's unlikely that there's public support at the moment for going much further than banning mobile phone conversations.
Discussion
Absolutely.
Having been a passenger in a car when the driver dropped his personal stick of fire I can vividly recall the total shift of concentration he made, from driving the car to retrieving the cigarette. Had I not grabbed the wheel, we would have crashed. Bit more distracting than a mobile dropped in the lap.
Having been a passenger in a car when the driver dropped his personal stick of fire I can vividly recall the total shift of concentration he made, from driving the car to retrieving the cigarette. Had I not grabbed the wheel, we would have crashed. Bit more distracting than a mobile dropped in the lap.
We, in the UK, already have legislation which addresses this. Not being in control of your vehicle is an offence: "Careless Driving". There is *no need* for additional legislation banning specific things - its already illegal to scratch your own balls whilst driving - if you do it to the extent it affects your safety and that of others.
I despair, I really do.
There have always been smokers who carefully select their moment. Wait until the road ahead is straight and clear, and then, perfectly responsibly, spark up. They carefully smoke whilst only taking both hands off the wheel when absolutely necessary, and flick the ash carefully into an ashtray. In an emergency they would concentrate on that first - get stopped - and then find and extinguish the cigarette if they had dropped it.
The risks in the above are clearly very, very minimal.
Then there are the total numpties that drive with their heads in the clouds. Whether or not it clouds of their own smoke is irrelevant. These people will drink hot coffee with one hand whilst failing to steer around tight corners in the town centre.
Because of the irresponsible twits - the rest of us have to suffer bans on things which *can* be perfectly safe.
I don't smoke - but I'd like to be able to use my goddamn phone. I'm smart enough to work out when its OK and when its not.
I despair, I really do.
There have always been smokers who carefully select their moment. Wait until the road ahead is straight and clear, and then, perfectly responsibly, spark up. They carefully smoke whilst only taking both hands off the wheel when absolutely necessary, and flick the ash carefully into an ashtray. In an emergency they would concentrate on that first - get stopped - and then find and extinguish the cigarette if they had dropped it.
The risks in the above are clearly very, very minimal.
Then there are the total numpties that drive with their heads in the clouds. Whether or not it clouds of their own smoke is irrelevant. These people will drink hot coffee with one hand whilst failing to steer around tight corners in the town centre.
Because of the irresponsible twits - the rest of us have to suffer bans on things which *can* be perfectly safe.
I don't smoke - but I'd like to be able to use my goddamn phone. I'm smart enough to work out when its OK and when its not.
Penti Arikkala tells a story.
He used to race when he was younger but found it easy and really boring. During one long distance race he lit up while driving. He got away with it until the evening when a marshall spotted the red glow.
He was black-flagged, and got a telling off. The marshall told Penti that it was really very dangerous, to which he replied "But I usually only smoke 5 a day!".
SS7
He used to race when he was younger but found it easy and really boring. During one long distance race he lit up while driving. He got away with it until the evening when a marshall spotted the red glow.
He was black-flagged, and got a telling off. The marshall told Penti that it was really very dangerous, to which he replied "But I usually only smoke 5 a day!".
SS7
A cigarette was flicked out whilst i was on a push bike, butt landed against my chest and due to the high level of nylon in the outfit i had on at the time, i went from dressed to riding home very fast in a matter of moments, amusing you think, looking back apart from the sticky molten mass of burning nylon embedding itself into my chest it was really
that and the general issues with litter it all causes.
that and the general issues with litter it all causes.
Don said:Absolutely. And to my mind, specifically outlawing individual activities such as using a mobile phone or smoking, you risk leading the public to believe that anything not specifically legislated against is therefore perfectly legal and safe.
We, in the UK, already have legislation which addresses this. Not being in control of your vehicle is an offence: "Careless Driving". There is *no need* for additional legislation banning specific things - its already illegal to scratch your own balls whilst driving - if you do it to the extent it affects your safety and that of others.
QED said:
I wonder if they used actual statistics to conclude that eating fish sandwiches while driving is more dangerous than eating ham sandwiches for instance. Or maybe it's a German thing to eat fish sandwiches while driving !
His point was, surely, to ridicule the banning of a specific activity - that can lead to numpty driving instead of, rightly, prosecuting people for acts of "driving like a numpty".
Driving like a numpty is already illegal.
Vee-X said:
A cigarette was flicked out whilst i was on a push bike, butt landed against my chest and due to the high level of nylon in the outfit i had on at the time, i went from dressed to riding home very fast in a matter of moments, amusing you think, looking back apart from the sticky molten mass of burning nylon embedding itself into my chest it was really that and the general issues with litter it all causes.
Yes yes yes. But now we are not talking about smoking whilst driving. We are talking about:
1) Driving without due consideration for other road users (like chucking butts out of the car) - which is already illegal.
2) Littering. Also already illegal.
Don said:
We, in the UK, already have legislation which addresses this. Not being in control of your vehicle is an offence: "Careless Driving". There is *no need* for additional legislation banning specific things - its already illegal to scratch your own balls whilst driving - if you do it to the extent it affects your safety and that of others.
Same over here in The Netherlands. Nevertheless there were some (probably bored) politicians who made up the law against non-hands-free calling.
Stupid fools. They should all go to work and do something useful!
Don said:Well said, Don!
We, in the UK, already have legislation which addresses this. Not being in control of your vehicle is an offence: "Careless Driving". There is *no need* for additional legislation banning specific things - its already illegal to scratch your own balls whilst driving - if you do it to the extent it affects your safety and that of others.
I despair, I really do.
There have always been smokers who carefully select their moment. Wait until the road ahead is straight and clear, and then, perfectly responsibly, spark up. They carefully smoke whilst only taking both hands off the wheel when absolutely necessary, and flick the ash carefully into an ashtray. In an emergency they would concentrate on that first - get stopped - and then find and extinguish the cigarette if they had dropped it.
The risks in the above are clearly very, very minimal.
Then there are the total numpties that drive with their heads in the clouds. Whether or not it clouds of their own smoke is irrelevant. These people will drink hot coffee with one hand whilst failing to steer around tight corners in the town centre.
Because of the irresponsible twits - the rest of us have to suffer bans on things which *can* be perfectly safe.
I don't smoke - but I'd like to be able to use my goddamn phone. I'm smart enough to work out when its OK and when its not.
john75 said:
I would welcome it I was was driving in the UK many years ago when my passenger decided to through the fag end out the window.
It blew back into the back seat and set fire to soem papers glad I had a bottle of cider to put it out with to hand otherwise bye bye car.
How would banning drivers from smoking help in that case
As a smoker I never felt the need to smoke in the car at any time after the initial novelty had worn off ca. 17 years of age. But, what else are they going to ban, changing the radio, turning the lights on, using your windscreen wash with lots of flies stuck to the window (excessive smearing of flying debris at speed resulting in reduced vision)
FFS talking to passengers should also be banned, in fact driving is too dangerous to allow full stop. Z
Don said:
We, in the UK, already have legislation which addresses this. Not being in control of your vehicle is an offence: "Careless Driving". There is *no need* for additional legislation banning specific things - its already illegal to scratch your own balls whilst driving - if you do it to the extent it affects your safety and that of others.
I despair, I really do.
There have always been smokers who carefully select their moment. Wait until the road ahead is straight and clear, and then, perfectly responsibly, spark up. They carefully smoke whilst only taking both hands off the wheel when absolutely necessary, and flick the ash carefully into an ashtray. In an emergency they would concentrate on that first - get stopped - and then find and extinguish the cigarette if they had dropped it.
The risks in the above are clearly very, very minimal.
Then there are the total numpties that drive with their heads in the clouds. Whether or not it clouds of their own smoke is irrelevant. These people will drink hot coffee with one hand whilst failing to steer around tight corners in the town centre.
Because of the irresponsible twits - the rest of us have to suffer bans on things which *can* be perfectly safe.
I don't smoke - but I'd like to be able to use my goddamn phone. I'm smart enough to work out when its OK and when its not.
Agree with all of that, except the fictitious smoker who can calmly stop the car before removing the burning fag from his leg. Can't be done.
What has bugged me most about all this 'ban the mobile' malarky, is that all the other equally dangerous activities various people have pointed out here are absolutely NOT banned, so we have a typically unbalanced law. If we had no cigarettes and you were to suggest that a driver should be able to carry a burning stick, everyone would laugh. Plenty of tax revenue in letting people carry on smoking though - not much in mobiles.
I would say it's far more distracting trying to operate a sat nav system (or an i-drive) than smoking whilst driving.
Have any of these German safety experts tried to switch the air con off on a new Astra, whilst driving safely - almost impossible.
Try doing it whilst eating a fish sandwich ... or smoking ...
Have any of these German safety experts tried to switch the air con off on a new Astra, whilst driving safely - almost impossible.
Try doing it whilst eating a fish sandwich ... or smoking ...
LexSport said:
We, in the UK, already have legislation which addresses this. Not being in control of your vehicle is an offence: "Careless Driving". There is *no need* for additional legislation banning specific things - its already illegal to scratch your own balls whilst driving - if you do it to the extent it affects your safety and that of others.
Absolutely. And to my mind, specifically outlawing individual activities such as using a mobile phone or smoking, you risk leading the public to believe that anything not specifically legislated against is therefore perfectly legal and safe.
I agree that no new laws are required as we are already covered under the dangerous driving law. However, I would like to see amendments to the dangerous driving law to provide more detail on what is and is not accepted as dangerous.
However, as with all these things, there needs to be proper enforcement.
Oh and a consideration for all those suggesting that touching the radio, etc is as dangerous, consider that this is generally a momentry action (astra air con excepted) whereas smoking is a prolonged 'distraction'/protential danger.
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