You say... ban smoking while driving - Ban smoking at the wheel

We will laugh in 20 years time when we tell our kids we used to allow it.

It is utterly ridiculous that it has taken this long for people to start considering this ban. We should all be ashamed of our own lethargy.
Robert Quick

It seems absurd that drivers can be fined and receive penalty points on their driving licences for eating or drinking while driving, but smoking - a much more distracting and potentially dangerous activity when driving - is not banned (yet).

I hate driving in heavy traffic when the driver behind is smoking - I await a shunt arising from his/her lack of attention to the job in hand (i.e. he/she should be driving with all due care and attention). Multi-tasking while driving should discouraged!
Phil Harding

Few people realise that one gallon of petrol is equivalent to around 81 sticks of dynamite; only a degenerate would light a cigarette in such close proximity to this explosive potential.

How do smoking drivers react in an emergency situation? Do they drop the ciggy they are holding and then wrestle with the wheel? Do they put the cigarette in their mouth and then react, or do they state after the collision (assuming they are still alive) that there was nothing they could do (and then light up at the side of their damaged vehicle - ruptured fuel tank and all)?

Until smoking is banned, smokers will continue to be the death of innocent people. Smoking while driving is the most stupid and irresponsible thing that anyone could do.
Vernon Stuttard

It is disgraceful to see adults smoking in the front of a car with toddlers at the back inhaling all their smoke. The evidence is clear: this practice can harm children, quite apart from the road safety issues.

Just ban smoking in cars and make it simple for everyone
Walter Young

If drinking and eating are banned then so should smoking, getting a cigarette out of the packet, lighting it, or aiming the ash, not to mention the risk of dropping the hot stub onto you.

You have one hand off the wheel. Also, you are forcing your other passengers, especially children, to smoke passively.

Smoking reduces oxygen in the blood and therefore you may be less alert.
David Clegg

I'm an ex-smoker and know how dangerous it is! At least twice I've dropped a lit cigarette between my legs while driving. I'm sure you get the picture of the squirming required to avoid and find the glowing/burning offending cigarette!
Simon Kraushaar

My main worry is not accidents, but the way young children are exposed to a lot of passive smoke if their parents smoke in the car with them in the back.

I still see this happening occasionally, although such ignorant and selfish behaviour from parents is thankfully steadily on the decline. A car is a very confined space and opening the window does little to protect children from passive smoke; in fact, it makes it mostly blow into the back of the car.

Ban smoking while driving now, mainly for the sake of the children of smokers who currently have no legal protection at all.
Lesley Dove

There are two significant problems with smoking while driving:

1. You cannot give sufficient attention to driving at the same time as getting a cigarette, putting it in your mouth, finding a lighter and lighting the tip of the cigarette and then smoking it. Anyone who suggests they can do this while giving full attention to driving is not being honest.

2. The concentration of passive smoking for passengers in such a closely confined area is considerable - studies suggest that the passive smoking effect in a car is equivalent to smoking four cigarettes (due to the limited space and amount of unfiltered smoke from the cigarette tip). Given the undeniable effect of passive smoking - especially on children - it's hard to categorise this as anything other than abusive behaviour.
Ronnie Gibson

I don't smoke but I can imagine that getting a cigarette out of a packet, lighting it, and holding it while driving has got to be a bit distracting. While you're changing gear, you've got one hand with a cigarette in on the wheel so you wouldn't have a proper grip on (and therefore control of) the wheel.

It's maybe not as bad as using a hand-held phone while driving, but it's certainly got to be worse than fiddling with the radio. However, with regards to the line in your article 'People against the proposed ban say smoking is no more distracting than changing a CD or retuning the radio', changing a CD or retuning a radio can be pretty distracting!
Steve Archer

I have seen too many people whose car has wandered across a lane because they do not have proper control of the vehicle whilst smoking or they have looked away from the road whilst lighting a cigarette. There are also too many people throwing still-burning cigarettes out of car windows - a great hazard to other road users, particularly motor cyclists and cyclists.
Alan Davies