Campaign should not go up in smoke

5:00pm Tuesday 22nd May 2007

FINALLY some common-sense in the world. I was delighted to read this week that a campaign is underway to ban smoking at the wheel.

I've never understood why drivers are allowed to puff on cigarettes on our roads. It may not be as dangerous as gassing on a mobile phone, but it's not far off.

I see it all the time on my journey through High Wycombe - motorists doing difficult manoeuvres such as three point turns with only one hand on the steering wheel, while they grasp a fag in the other.

Or they sit in a traffic jam in front of me with their nicotine stick poking out of the window causing their smoke to fill up my car with fumes.

They have no wish to pollute their own vehicles with the filth but have no pangs about inflicting it on innocent strangers.

I can't count the times I've sat sneezing in traffic because of a thoughtless smoker in a nearby car.

But the fumes are nothing compared to the menace of one-handed driving on fast roads. These people think nothing of zooming down motorways while holding a lit cigarette in between their fingers.

Not only does it affect their control, but it also causes a fire risk. It's not unknown for smokers' cars to catch alight during a moment of carelessness.

I admit it takes some skill to smoke and drive at the same time, and perhaps there should be a section in the driving test especially for addicts. They could call it "inhaling round a corner" or a "three-puff turn".

I've always been astonished that smoking and driving is so universally accepted, so it came as a relief this week to read that safety campaigners are seriously pressing for a total ban.

The Local Authority Road Safety Officers' Association points out that smoking and driving is a serious hazard. One hand is permanently off the wheel for around five minutes while there is the risk of a lit cigarette falling into your lap, or hot ash being blown back through the window.

A new driving law would logically follow on from the ban on cigarettes in enclosed public places that comes into force on July 1. I never thought that ban would see the light of day but it's still long overdue.

Pro-smoking campaigners will no doubt bleat that a further smoking prohibition will infringe their civil liberties and their freedoms.

But by protecting their freedoms, you are compromising everyone else's.

Such as the freedom to breathe clean air, the freedom to drive safely - and the freedom to avoid being killed by someone who thinks that having a drag on an addictive substance is more important than keeping your full concentration on the road.

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