While I’m not a smoker, I know a lot of people which have this habit, which often cite the fact that it helps them unwind, especially while driving. But according to a law in the Canadian region of Ontario, you can’t smoke in enclosed or work spaces.
All fine and dandy, but it seems that the Police in the region are considering the truck cabins as work placed for their drivers and have begun giving out fines to those found smoking while driving. Starting with a trucker being fined with 305 Canadian dollars, it was a no-brainer that authorities would get all of the truckers in country angry.
“It’s just going too far,” said Larry Jespersen, a truck driver from Calgary. “I mean, where are they going to stop? It’s ridiculous. That’s his environment, that’s his home, he’s by himself. If he’s got a four-year-old kid in there, maybe. Maybe. I don’t smoke but other guys do. That’s their prerogative. But this has just crossed the line. There’s got to be limits.”
On the other side of the barricade, Neil MacKenzie, a program manager for a health unit’s tobacco free program revealed that such fines, given to truck or taxi drivers are justified and that they will get used to it in no time.
“If it’s a work vehicle, then they are required to have it smoke free,” said MacKenzie. “We enforce the legislation that’s provided to us. Our interpretation of that legislation isn’t quite so important as it is to make sure we have universally and fairly applied the legislation. Whether or not we think it’s fair is almost secondary. It’s the law that we’ve been charged with enforcing.”
What do you think? Are trucks or taxis the work place of these drivers? Even those privately owned? Should these people smoke if it helps them relax and be more careful on the road? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Source: AutosCanada
