Sir, – Minister for Health Dr James Reilly has said he wants to ban smoking in cars where children are present (Home News, July 27th).
It is unfortunate we need to implement a ban on something any good parent or driver knows is morally wrong to inflict on a child present in a vehicle.
Shame on those who currently practice such behaviour, regardless of whether it is legal or not. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – A ban on smoking in cars might not be such a bad thing.After all, there’s more to smoking than smoke.
I remember an incident many years ago. The car, as I recall, was a Rover 2000. I’d just lit a cigarette from the dashboard lighter, and was waiting to turn right at a notoriously difficult T-junction. As a gap in the traffic appeared, the lit end of my cigarette obligingly fell off.
I was thus obliged to make the manoeuvre, hazardous enough at the best of times, while simultaneously trying to locate and quell the conflagration in the turn-up of my right trouser leg. I survived (obviously), but it could have gone either way.
If we accept that using a mobile phone in a car is a serious distraction (and how could it not be, in modern driving conditions), surely the act of locating, extracting and lighting a cigarette should be considered equally hazardous, even if you refrain from actually setting yourself on fire?
I personally have no fear of passive smoke, having been born into a household with four adults who all chain-smoked Capstan Full Strength, and still being in rude health at 59. Distracted drivers, however, do worry me. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Instead of adding two penalty points to a person’s licence as punishment for smoking in their car with children present, can I suggest a better deterrent would be the deduction of two cigarettes from their pack if caught? – Yours, etc,
A chara, – 2004: smoking banned in bars. 2011: smoking banned in cars. 2018: smoking banned on Mars? – Is mise,
Sir, – It’s against the law for a driver to use a mobile phone yet they’re allowed to take a cigarette out of the packet and then set it on fire whilst driving.
Then to hold it until finished and put out the fire!
Don’t get me started on why smokers should pay higher health insurance premiums. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – If and when a smoking ban in cars is passed into law, I presume the Garda will have the same high success rate of detection and prosecution as achieved in the use of mobile phones while driving?
Well, good luck with that. – Yours, etc,