Plan to ban smoking while driving lights fire under smokers

Published in the Asbury Park Press 07/9/05

BY ROB JENNINGS
GANNETT NEW JERSEY

Two state lawmakers want to make it illegal to drive a car while smoking ? a seemingly long-shot proposal that extends the tobacco debate from public places into privately owned automobiles.

The bill, A-4306, introduced on June 27, would stipulate up to a $250 fine for smoking while driving. It would be a secondary offense ? enforced only if a motorist had been pulled over for a separate traffic violation or other offense.

The proposed ban is lighting a fire under smokers.

"It's my car. I own it. Next time, will they come into my house? What's the difference," said Eileen Gilchrist while taking a smoke break from her job in Dover last week.

There are no states that prohibit drivers from smoking inside their own vehicles, according to Action on Smoking and Health in Washington, D.C. ? although lawmakers in Germany began weighing a nationwide ban two months ago.

Assemblyman John F. McKeon, D-Essex, said his bill would promote safety. He did not cite any studies linking smoking to a heightened risk of car accidents.

Jefferson Police Sgt. Eric Wilsusen, a 20-year veteran, said he couldn't recall a single accident attributed to smoking by the driver.

McKeon, 47, who also is mayor of West Orange, acknowledged that his primary goal is "to bring focus to the ravages of tobacco."

"This is just another in a series of legislation to see what we can do to curtail the use of tobacco," said McKeon, whose father died of smoking-related emphysema two years ago.

The bill's co-sponsor, Loretta Weinberg, D-Bergen, introduced the New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act ? a proposal to prohibit smoking in indoor public places and in workplaces that would be similar to the New York law ? in January. The bill has not yet come to a vote.

Weinberg said she agreed to back a smoking-while-driving ban after McKeon broached the idea, even though she does not believe that it will become law.

"I know there are people who will consider this kind of silly," Weinberg said.