New Jersey legislators push bill to stop drivers from smoking while drivin

[Judi Lynn]

New Jersey legislators push bill to stop drivers from smoking while driving

Canadian Press

July 25, 2005



Assemblyman John McKeon poses outside his law office in Springfield, N.J., last Thursday, as cars and trucks pass. (AP/Mike Derer)

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - Ashtrays have been disappearing in cars like fins on Cadillacs, and so could smoking while driving in New Jersey, under a measure introduced in the Legislature.

Although the measure faces long odds, it still has smokers incensed and arguing it's a Big Brother intrusion that threatens to take away one of the few places they can enjoy their habit. "The day a politician wants to tell me I can't smoke in my car, that's the day he takes over my lease payments," said John Cito, a financial planner from Hackensack with a taste for $20 US cigars.

Those cigars, pipes and cigarettes would become no-nos for drivers. Offenders would be stung with a fine of up to $250, under the measure, whose sponsor said it's designed more to improve highway safety than protect health.

Some states, including New Jersey, have considered putting the brakes on smoking while children are in the car. But none have gone for an outright ban on smoking while driving, according to Washington, D.C.-based Action on Smoking and Health, the country's oldest anti-tobacco organization.
(snip/...)

http://www.canada.com/health/story.html?id=90535b96-b666-4c31-8801-337d78d31dc6

(McKeon's a Democrat, D.U. smokers.... Sorry.)

[truthisfreedom]

1. man, i would love that. i hate being on my scooter or in my convertible

and smelling the stench of someone's cigarette blowing in my face.

[Jersey Devil]

8. Just how is that possible?

Do they aim their smoke at you thought a pipe as you are passing them on the turnpike?

[BiggJawn]

15. You can smell it as they go by. And it lingers.

I can tell when I'm riding my bike and a smoker drives past. And the smell lingers for a while after they pass.

Having said that, this is Bad Law, and people need to start forwarding their car payment bills to the House of Bubbas.

[theHandpuppet]

23. But you don't mind their stinking exhaust blowing in your face?

Get real.

[ixion]

2. you know, these anti-smoking advocates can all just go to hell

really, who the hell do they think they are?

:grr:

I'm annoyed as hell at families smelling up restaurants and taking up all the space in any isle at a store (as well both are public health and safety hazards), but you don't see me crafting legislation to outlaw families in public places. ;-)

[nookiemonster]

3. I agree to a point, but not so much about families.

I'm a smoker. I have always been courteous to those who don't.

For all the "anti's" out there, there's a simple solution:

BAN CIGARETTES!

Of course, don't bitch at me when the sin tax revenue dries up. You can't have it both ways.

Just my $0.02.

[ixion]

4. yeah, the families thing was just making a point

it would be ridiculous to pose such legislation, as I feel it is ridiculous and obnoxious to pose the proposed legislation.

[nookiemonster]

5. I totally understand your point.

Of course with most of our latest legislation, it would be no more ridiculous or obnoxious than what you have stated.

Fascists suck.

[ixion]

6. yep, agreed. fascists suck

no matter what political banner they may fly.

[mtnester]

20. Exactly, ban cigarettes completely

then WATCH how high the extra taxes go on gasoline and liquor.

So, when will they have cameras set up to ban smoking in my garage? Pretty soon?

As a smoker who is planning on quitting as soon as the weather turns cold (easier to do then when you are shivering outside for just a couple of hits), I have been BEYOND courteous and considerate of my non-smoking brethren. I do not throw my butts out of my car window, I do not smoke NEAR anyone who does not, I rarely smoke in public AT ALL...just in my car and garage, and outdoors in my yard. Public smoking is confined to being on the boat, in a parking lot, etc.

Right now, smoking is legal in the places I mentioned above....if you happen to smell it as you pass by in your car or motorcycle or scooter or bike, think hard about the EXHAUST fumes I also give ya. 'Specially if I have a diesel. So maybe we ought to just ban cars too cause they stink, and diesel fumes are known carcinogens?

What next I ask?

[no_hypocrisy]

7. The underlying "evil" of secondhand smoke would be more compelling

if the car windows could not be opened.

Sounds more like one more way to raise revenue in traffic court. Imagine you forgot to put on your blinker when changing lanes. You could get hit with that infraction, coupled with no seat belt, talking on a celphone, and smoking while driving. That's at least $400.

[Mairead]

9. Just one more turn of the screw clamping us in place

They want full control over our lives, and will keep nibbling away at the freedoms we still have til they get it. Or we stop them.

I've not smoked in almost 40 years, and I feel a little revolted by the smell of most tobacco smoke. I don't want to have to choose between breathing second-hand smoke or fleeing to some place without it. So I'm in favor of laws disallowing smoking in enclosed public spaces unless there's very good ventilation indeed. I don't think that's an unreasonable limitation on the rights of smokers.

But encroachments like this one cannot be supported on any rational grounds. They're control measures, pure and simple.

[Jersey Devil]

10. Best law is the one banning smoking cigs at open air stadiums

This way none of that foul tobacco smoke gets to mix in with the pungent odor of marijhuana that is always in the air.

[BlueJazz]

11. I don't smoke but my friends tell me that they would go along....

..with a ban on smoking in exchange for a law against driving while talking on a cell phone.

[nookiemonster]

13. COUNT ME IN!!

A sweet deal indeed. :P

[Algorem]

12. 'of 32,000 accidents 'linked' to distraction,1% were 'related' to smoking'

uh,nutjob.

[sendero]

14. Just goes to show..

... not all douchebags are Republicans.

[converted_democrat]

22. Well said!!!

I am soooooo sick of how the government is clearly trying to control our lives.

[ramapo]

16. Stupid waste of time

It is amazing how legislators, be them state or federal, latch on to these ridiculous and trivial issues.

NJ outlawed talking on a cellphone while driving and the law is completely ignored. It is basically unenforcable also since you can't be stopped for talking.

Why not outlaw eating, drinking, and thinking while driving as these are all needless distractions.

Of course if legislators didn;t come up with these ideas, they'd have to perhaps tackle real issues like jobs, taxes, health insurance, transportation, poverty, education, etc.

[trapper914]

19. What's The Point?

"Mitchell Sklar, of the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police, said police departments may balk at enforcing such a law."

This is typical political posturing...the writing of legislation that police won't enforce. This is much like the law they passed in NYC banning ringing cell phones in venues such as theatres. No cop would ever enforce something like that, but it gets a politician a little press. Meanwhile, the bureacracy grows larger.

That said, I agree with the earlier poster who noted "of 32,000 accidents linked to distraction, one per cent were related to smoking." I'd like to see the entire AAA study. If they're really interested in saving lives, maybe they should take a long look at the driver distractions that comprise a larger portion of that 32000 accident pie.

[AngryAmish]

21. There is a reason for this

In lawsuits, if a party can prove the other party broke a law, then it is evidence of negligence. You get a jury instruction on it. If a Plaintiff's lawyer can prove you were talking on the phone and got in an accident, then you can argue that the person broke the law, was distracted, etc.

The law exists to help people sue other people.

[HockeyMom]

17. No "distractions" while driving:

1. drinking a cup a joe or can of pepsi
2. no eating, from donuts (includes police officers) to Big Macs
3. no listening to the radio
4. no talking to any passenger in the car (or on a cell phone)
5. no looking at a map
6. no putting on makeup or primping
7. no sneezing, coughing, or blowing your nose


Did I forget anything?

[0007]

18. ..farting