Smoking While Driving Should Be Illegal
Smoking cigarettes while driving should be just as big of an offense as any other form of distracted driving.
Picture this: it’s a beautiful day, and you are cruising along in your car. Your music is turned up and your windows are rolled down. Suddenly, you’re assaulted by the pungent odor of a cigarette. Looking up, you notice an individual several cars ahead of you with the source of the smell between their fingers. But if one of their hands is holding the cigarette, that means that there is only one hand on the wheel at best. Cigarettes not only take hands off the wheel but provide an unwelcome distraction for drivers.
According to Darren Cottingham from DT: Driving Training, “A study in America found that smokers were 1.5 times more likely to be in a car crash…” This is no coincidence; there is a direct correlation between smoking while driving and increased automobile accidents.
In a study conducted by the National Institute of Health, it was shown that people who smoke while driving are more distracted than people who use their phones while driving. The smoking distraction includes the process of finding the cigarettes, finding the lighter, lighting the cigarette, putting the lighter and carton away, and then the actual act of smoking.
So, how is this impacting you? As said by Anderson in his article on smoking while driving, “…one percent of [all driving accidents] are caused from smoking, that’s 1,000 accidents a year. One hundred and fifty of those wrecks will be fatal, statistically.”
At this point, you are probably thinking, that’s a low percentage. But imagine cruising down the road with your family while Joe Schmo a few cars ahead decides to light up a cancer stick and, in the time that he is distracted, he hits the car you and your family are in. Now it is no longer a statistic; it’s you.
I propose that a law be introduced banning this act. By implementing a law that bans smoking while driving, we will hopefully see a decrease in car accidents as a result. However, this begs another question: would this even work?
I want us to look at another form of distracted driving and its solution. On November 1, 2001, New York became the first state to implement a law banning the use of handheld devices while driving. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, in a series of studies conducted in NY, the number of car accidents decreased significantly once the ban was in place.
A law banning the smoking of cigarettes would hopefully have a very similar impact, but you can’t just implement a law and leave it alone. There is a certain level of compromise that must take place in order for a law to be effective.
If you have driven on the thruway, you have probably seen text stops. These are designated locations for patrons to pullover and send a text safely. I would propose that we implement a similar system for smoking. We saw that it was effective for cell phone use, so why should we expect anything different for smoking?
Now, people would probably argue that they need their cigarettes, and they can’t wait for one of the stops. Well, if you can’t go 30 miles without a cigarette, I feel like we may have bigger problems. But if it really is that big of a deal, I would suggest they call a friend for a ride.
Taking this action will make everyone safer. Distracted driving is driving with the intent to kill. A world where smoking while driving is illegal is a safer one. When you are driving, and you see that everyone is driving to their best ability, our roads will be safer, thus alleviating unnecessary stress from your day. Honestly, I don’t see any way this could negatively impact our population.
Let’s go back to that visualization from the beginning. Driving down the road on a beautiful day, music up, windows down. Only this time you aren’t assaulted with the odor of cigarette smoke. You look up and notice that the person in the car ahead of you has both hands on the wheel without a distraction in sight, and you feel safe.
