DRIVERS who light up behind the wheel are to be fined £60 in the latest clampdown on smoking.

Transport chiefs believe drivers taking their eyes off the road while finding and lighting cigarettes is responsible for killing and injuring hundreds of people a year, but pro-smoking groups say it is part of a campaign against them.

A recent study by Spanish researchers suggested smokers are twice as likely to have a car accident as non-smokers.

Now smoking is set to be listed alongside eating, drinking and reading maps as potentially lethal distractions in next year’s version of the Highway Code.

Drivers who smoke will face on-the-spot fines of £60, similar to those caught using a mobile phone.

The offence will fall within Department for Transport regulations requiring motorists to have “proper control” of their vehicle at all times. The move was welcomed by road safety campaigners and motoring organisations.

But pro-smoking groups say it is a further attempt to victimise smokers after the ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces. That ban already extends to taxi drivers, lorry drivers and people using company cars.

Neil Rafferty, the Scottish spokesman for the pro-smoking group Forest, said: “The government is using every agency and bureaucracy available to it to marginalise smokers and force them into quitting.

“They have done it in pubs and restaurants, now they are going to do it in cars. This is an over-reaction and is very much part of an ongoing campaign against smokers.”

However, Maureen Moore, the chief executive of ASH Scotland, the anti-smoking group, said: “This is a positive move to make the roads safer. Research suggests drivers who smoke are more at risk of having an accident.

“[It] will also have the benefits of reducing their passengers’ exposure to second-hand smoke.”

Andrew Howard, the head of road safety at the AA Motoring Trust, also welcomed the move: “Smoking will now be included as a distraction and people could face being fined.

“Some people will see it as an erosion of their freedoms, but it is aimed at making the roads safer.”

In March Donna Maddock, 22, from Flintshire, was fined £200 for putting on her make-up while driving. In January 2005, a motorist from Tyneside was fined £60 after she was spotted holding an apple while driving.

A spokesman for the Driving Standards Agency said: “The proposal is there for the safety of drivers and other road users. The Highway Code proposals are not final and will be reviewed.”

There are about 1.4 million smokers in Scotland and ministers have set a target of reducing that number by 186,000 by 2010.

Source: The Scotsman