Britain’s senior road safety campaigners are calling for a ban on smoking while driving, in an attempt to cut the number of crashes.
Now drivers face ban on smoking at the wheel | UK News | The Observer.
Here we fucking go again… For fuck’s sake!
The [Local Authority Road Safety Officers’] association claims that drivers are in danger when they take their hands off the wheel to find, light and smoke cigarettes, and are particularly at risk if a lit cigarette or ash falls in the car or is blown back through the window.
As a motorcyclist, I do get a bit pissed off when drivers throw dog ends out of the window and they fly into my face, but it’s a rare occurrence and I’m sufficiently aware that I can see it coming anyway. A ban on smoking at the wheel would be a sledgehammer to crack a cress seed.
In this country, we’re libertarians…
Do me a fucking favour, please… Libertarians my arse. You people wouldn’t know the meaning of libertarianism if it lit up and stubbed the fag out in the middle of your poxy forehead.
…we like to give people freedoms, but if you are distracted unfortunately your freedom to do these things can affect other people’s lives.
Ah, yes, the standard totalitarian approach, we want to limit your freedom as a sentient adult to live your life in the manner you see fit because we think that freedom impinges on everyone else. That this is nothing more than a wild assertion is besides the point, the assertion has been made, therefore it must be true.
Last year there were 3,201 deaths on Britain’s roads.
And how many, exactly, of these deaths were directly attributed to drivers smoking while driving? How many, please? Strange, there is no mention of casualty figures directly caused by smoking at the wheel. Why is that I wonder?
The Department of Health said it was ‘looking at how we can get further momentum towards smoking cessation beyond the introduction of the smoking ban in England’.
Now we are getting to the nub of it. This has bugger all to do with road safety and everything to do with health Nazis seeking to impose their will on those who live lifestyles of which they disapprove. I have never smoked and never wanted to, but just at this moment a part of me feels inclined to take it up.
‘We are looking at further proposals and this could be one of them. If the road safety officers put information and evidence before us about this, and explain the case for it, we would study it,’ said a spokeswoman.
Yes, I would be very interested to see some evidence, too. There are numerous distractions that drivers face. Perhaps we should ban them all? What about the car stereo? What about children talking and fighting? What about passengers who witter on? What about roadside billboards (particularly those portraying scantily clad young women)? We could go on and on and on, couldn’t we?
Amanda Sandford of the campaign group Action on Smoking and Health said: ‘We fully support this proposal.’
Well, yes, you would; it’s a control freak’s dream come true, a health Nazi’s raison d’être. Of course you support it, I expect nothing else.
Not so long ago it would have seemed inconceivable that we would have a total ban on smoking across the country, but in a few years time people will think it’s inconceivable that we allow people to continue to smoke while driving.
And personal liberty is rapidly becoming an extinct concept. Note the use of language here; Amanda allows us to drive and smoke – and that she should now not allow us to do so, as if it is in some way any of her fucking business what we do in our cars, our homes and to our bodies.
Andrew Lansley, the Conservative shadow Health Secretary, condemned the plan as a denial of citizens’ rights to decide how they behave in their own personal space. ‘Parliament hasn’t accepted the completely anti-libertarian view that people can’t do what they like in their own homes and own cars,’ he said.
Andrew, old son, I don’t think you’ve been paying attention.
Update: Courtesy of Mr Eugenides, a similar call has been made in Ireland and here is the robust resopnse from the smokers rights lobby.
And next… all cars must be automatics, or else you can only drive in 1st gear.
So they want to increase the number of stressed, destracted people in an excessive hurry to get to their destinations (to finally sate the cravings) and this is supposed to improve road safety? The only good thing about this is that it will be completely unenforceable and will therefore make no practical difference other than criminalising the generally law abiding even more.
I think the Nazis are the ones who think that the ‘right to smoke whatever the circumstances’ is worth even one traffic accident.
What about the right to smoke while operating machinery? Driving a one tonne piece of metal round at high speeds is a serious business and if smoking endangers people’s lives then I don’t really get what the problem is. It is a minor inconvenience for the smoker. I suppose you defend the right of people to use their hand held mobiles while driving. What about drink driving? Some people could handle it, are we not infringing their freedom to get pissed at the wheel?
Neil, you come up with so many strawmen, you should be due an agricultural subsidy by now. There are enough in this comment alone to keep a small farm going for a fortnight. I am not going to dignify such stupidity with a response. If you decide to comment on what I have said as opposed to what your fevered imagination would have liked me to say, then maybe we can have a discussion.