Jim Kenzie's The Driver's Seat: Smokin' in the Boys Room

Yeah yeah, another '60s pop song reference. Get used to it.

Must have been a slow crime day in Essex County last week.

An O.P.P. officer nabbed a transport truck driver for smoking while driving.

Distraction?

Nope. He could probably deal with fumbling around with the lighter and the smokes package, flicking the ashes out the window, rifling around between his knees when he dropped the butt down there.

And it's not like he was talking on his cell phone or anything.

He was nailed for 'smoking in an enclosed workplace'.

I'm impressed that the officer even knew this law existed, and could figure out at speed and at a distance that the crime was goin' down.

Steely-eyed minion of the law, serving and protecting.

Now, I hate smoking. When they ask me, "Smoking or non-smoking?" at a hotel, I tell them I wish the people who built the hotel hadn't been smokers. Most of my male relatives killed themselves by smoking. How anyone who has heard that Bob Newhart 'Sir Walter Raleigh' routine - and who hasn't? - can still smoke is beyond me.

But - isn't this going just a trifle too far?

News reports have included comments from drivers who share trucks with smoking colleagues. My sympathies - and the law - are totally with them. Not only is cigarette smoke carcinogenic and a serious problem for those with allergies, it just plain stinks.

The rights of the smoker end right at the lit end of his weed. They can inhale all they want; it's the exhaling the rest of us object to, not to mention the unfiltered smoke off the lit end which never even gets into the lungs of the smoker.

But apparently this guy's truck was his own. No-one else ever drove it. So no-one but this guy was affected by his smoking in it.

Yes, technically it is 'an enclosed workplace'.

But smoking per se is not illegal (well, smoking tobacco is not illegal...).

Where's the harm? (Except to the perp.) Where's the foul? (Except for the smell.)

Can the O. P. P. now come into the home office of anyone who happens to be a smoker - maybe even (gasp) an automotive journalist - and charge the occupant with 'smoking in an enclosed workplace'?

I think maybe someone had a bit too much time on their hands, and is in need of a little perspective.

Comments

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Since it was his truck and he was the only driver, the "workplace" rule shouldn't apply. However, smoking behind the wheel requires about as much dexterity as using a cell phone. The difference is that smoking for lifelong smokers is almost subliminal and would not distract from driving. Talking on a phone, however, takes a lot of attention away from the primary task, driving. With the low standard required to obtain a driver's license in Ontario, there are way too many people on the road who can't afford to be distracted.

Posted by: John B | October 12, 2009 at 09:56 AM