I read the other day that someone was convicted of the offence of eating an apple whilst driving…
Caught using a mobile phone whilst driving ? Reach for your cheque book and pay your fine, like a good little taxpayer…
Got me thinking…
If apple eating is dangerous, and speaking into a phone is even more so, how on earth is it legal to smoke a cigarette whilst driving ???
If you drop an apple it doesn’t burn you or set you on fire…
A mobile phone can be said to be a danger if petrol is spilt, so I can see some sense in banning it from a petrol forecourt, so it must be a bit of a risk if you crash and have a fuel leak, but the apple isn’t a fuse for the average 2 ton petrol bomb…
But try and smoke a cigarette at your local Optimax-Mart…
However, you can drive all day, impairing your ability to drive from the effect of the addictive drug, whilst ruining your health and risking a heart attack at the wheel, and reducing visibility in the vehicle with all that smoke, with complete legal blessing…
I remember the ‘apple-gate’ story and I was soooo angry at the way the media took the piss out of matter. They missed the point completely.
You don’t just get fined for eating an apple in a car (the legislation does not exist, but it does for mobile telecommunication devices). There has to be other factors involved before you get stopped and dealt with. The ‘apple eater’ was driving erratically and this was what drew Polce attention - so, she was charged with careless driving, and the ‘apple’ was a contributing factor. But who’s interested in the truth…
Now, if she’d smacked into someone on the busy roundabout that she was failing to negotiate properly with her one free hand and killed someone, then we may have witnessed some other headlines proclaiming her stupidity.
To my knowledge there have been plenty of cases of careless driving where Smoking was also an issue and was raised during a prosecution.
The important bit to remember is the careless driving bit. No-one deserves to die on the road at the hands of a moron, so if you drive like a nob - then take your medicine.
I can remember when the anti-mobile laws came in and the papers were making a big deal of it (good bit of enactment by the way as I know of 3 fatalities in my region where Mobile Phones were a factor - 2 of these deaths were the innocent parties). The legislation came in at midnight, and the following morning a tabloid paper proudly declared that they had the scoop surrounding the first person to be charged with the offence. It went on for a whole page, and the last line stated that the ‘poor’ woman involved had also been charged with drink driving! Throw her ass in jail!!
Am I ranting?
I live for ‘spirited’ driving, but for god’s sake, keep your eye’s on the road and it’s verges, and both bloody hands on the wheel when you’re in mid-hazard negotiation.
Now I have the odd cigerette when driving and the only +ve I can make out compared to an apple is that you can have it between two fingers and have both hands on the wheel…
But when I’m “making progress” I never smoke and would gladly chuck a just lit fag away if I was presented with the open road