Britain's most senior road-safety campaigners are calling for smoking while driving to be banned in an attempt to cut the number of crashes.
The Department of Health said Saturday night that it would seriously consider a ban, which was also being looked at in Germany, Australia and the US.
The move was backed by anti-smoking campaigners but drew criticism from others as an attack on personal freedom.
From July 1, England will join the rest of the UK by introducing a ban on smoking in enclosed public places and at work.
The Local Authority Road Safety Officers' Association, which represents councils -- responsible for the majority of Britain's roads -- will meet transport officials within weeks to ask them to pass a special ban on smoking at the wheel.
A similar ban on using a hand-held mobile phone while driving is already in place.
The association claims that drivers are in danger when they take their hands off the wheel to find, light and smoke cigarettes, and are particularly at risk if a lit cigarette or ash falls in the car or is blown back through the window.
Last year there were 3,201 deaths on Britain's roads in nearly 200,000 accidents.
The organization, which represents 180 of the Britain's 200 local roads authorities, fears that once people who drive are stopped from lighting up in other places from July 1, they will smoke more while in their own cars.
"Driving is a complicated business, especially with the high volume of traffic motorists have to contend with these days. It's not an area where you can multi-task," said Simon Ettinghausen, a spokesman and past chairman of the association.
He said the law banning the use of hand-held mobile phones in cars showed special bans were more effective than general road-safety legislation.
"In this country, we're libertarians, we like to give people freedoms, but if you are distracted unfortunately your freedom to do these things can affect other people's lives," he said.
The Department of Health said it was "looking at how we can get further momentum towards smoking cessation beyond the introduction of the smoking ban in England on 1 July. We are looking at further proposals and this could be one of them. If the road safety officers put information and evidence before us about this, and explain the case for it, we would study it."
The department's response represents a softening of the government's view on the issue. Last year Transport Minister Stephen Ladyman rejected a ban, saying that existing legislation compelling drivers to have proper control of their vehicle was sufficient.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was