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.
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