Poms ban ciggies in cars -amusing law issue.

**vifferman** · 1st October 2007, 12:03

Originally Posted by craigs288

Naturally, it would be up to the Popo to use their awesome and arbitrary powers of (in)discretion to decide whether or not your cigarette was a distraction on any given day, in any given situation.

Well, given that they don't seem to hand out tickets for not using your indicators, failure to keep left, failing to stop at a stop sign / red light, following too close, driving with your driving lights on, having an excessively smoky exhaust, and a myriad of other offences that are not killers like exceeding the speed limit is, I don't think smokers are in any particular danger of being ticketed.

**craigs288** · 5th October 2007, 11:05

Especially when texting. If you look closely at people driving in their cars, a very large number seem to spend a lot of time looking down at their laps or near the bottom of their steering wheel, and occasionally look up in time to slam on the brakes or swerve back into their lane.

I have no problem with people smoking in their cars as I consider them to be private property, but if the car is being driven in a public place then the windows should be up so the smoker (and any passengers), their clothes and the car upholstery can soak up all that poisonous second hand shit and not pollute the environment. The smoke they exhale isn't as bad because they have used their lungs to filter out a lot of those carcinogens and toxic solvents used to keep the tobacco burning.

If the government feel they have the right to tell you what you can and can't do in your private property (car) when your private property is in a public environment (New Zealand), how long will it be before they decide they can tell you what you can and can't do in your private property (house) when your private property is in a public environment (New Zealand)?

**swbarnett** · 5th October 2007, 20:28

Originally Posted by craigs288

If the government feel they have the right to tell you what you can and can't do in your private property (car) when your private property is in a public environment (New Zealand), how long will it be before they decide they can tell you what you can and can't do in your private property (house) when your private property is in a public environment (New Zealand)?

The thing here is that they're not telling you what you can do while "in" your private property. Smoking in a car parked on the side of the road with the engine off is probably still perfectly legal in the UK. They're telling you what you can do while partaking in an activity that has been deemed a privilege, not a right i.e. driving.

**craigs288** · 11th October 2007, 08:22

Originally Posted by swbarnett

The thing here is that they're not telling you what you can do while "in" your private property. Smoking in a car parked on the side of the road with the engine off is probably still perfectly legal in the UK. They're telling you what you can do while partaking in an activity that has been deemed a privilege, not a right i.e. driving.

I wonder whether a majority of British people insisted that their government deem driving to be a privilege instead of a right and the government then carried out the peoples wishes, you know, the way a democracy works, majority rule.
Or whether the government decided it was a privilege because it suited them to do so.

**puppykicker** · 11th October 2007, 14:30

Originally Posted by craigs288

If the government feel they have the right to tell you what you can and can't do in your private property (car) when your private property is in a public environment (New Zealand), how long will it be before they decide they can tell you what you can and can't do in your private property (house) when your private property is in a public environment (New Zealand)?

uh, drug laws?

funny how people rant and rave about the government taking their freedumb and dont seem to care that theyve been doing it to to lots of us for 100s of years, because the harmless activity some people choose to participate in is not one you enjoy.

then they came for me, and there was noone left to say anything.

**swbarnett** · 12th October 2007, 20:50

Originally Posted by craigs288

I wonder whether a majority of British people insisted that their government deem driving to be a privilege instead of a right and the government then carried out the peoples wishes, you know, the way a democracy works, majority rule.
Or whether the government decided it was a privilege because it suited them to do so.

How it got to be a licensable activity is not really relevant. Given that it is, any law governing how you conduct yourself while partaking in said activity is not an infringement of your rights.

This is not to say that I'm in favour of such laws (I don't believe for a second that they actually improve safety). Very few laws today actually achieve anything useful and most should probably be abolished or at least extensively rewritten.

**Coldrider** · 13th October 2007, 07:30

Arnie has passed a law in California terminating smoking in cars carrying people under the age of 18, US$100 fine.

**MarkyMark** · 15th October 2007, 02:18

Originally Posted by renegade master

actaully i think its now illgal to smoke and drive in nz? law came in 1 or 2 years ago? I don't think its heavily enforced? Or maybe it was a radio hoax, as i heard it on the cock.

Funny, my radio doesn't get that station

**moko** · 15th October 2007, 05:12

The penalty for using cellphones at the wheel has also been doubled in the UK.The laws against smoking in the workplce were demed to include the vehicles of truckers,salesmen and delivery drivers when the workplace ban came in,the later cig ban is mainly to clear up any inconsistancy and the usual massive court case claiming victimisation e.t.c.
I know someone who flipped a car when the end of their cigarette dropped into their lap while driving.Main problem here is the lack of traffic cops to enforce the law and complaints about lack of traffic cops on U.K. message boards are as common as complaints here about too many.When I was in N.Z. I saw more traffic cars between Auckland and Hamilton on one journey than I'd seen for months in England.

**BMW** · 15th October 2007, 05:56

Originally Posted by Devil

Ditto, and the cigarette butts off the road and outta my eyes. You only need to stop at a set of traffic lights to see the disgusting pile of butts on the ground.

agreed.
The worst are people that flick it out into you when you are following the!

**James Deuce** · 15th October 2007, 06:07

Caught one and threw it back once - it was a workmate's wife. Changed their attitude to hurling cigarettes out the car window and she's since given up.

**Krayy** · 15th October 2007, 08:54

In the latest episode of Top Gear, the boys start alluding to this law and essentially accuse The Hamster of having a wank while driving, or as he put it, "The sign said to pull off into the layby"