New Delhi Becomes First City To Ban Smoking at the Wheel

NEW DELHI — Smoking poses serious health risks. So does driving in New Delhi.And combining the two is deadly, according to two New Delhi judges who have barred smoking at the wheel, officials said yesterday, apparently the first such ban in the world.Declaring “New Delhi roads dangerous to human life,” the city’s High Court on Monday imposed a slew of new measures aimed at deterring habitually bad drivers, including the smoking ban and a prohibition on using mobile phones while behind the wheel.“Anything that distracts the attention of driver is dangerous. The human mind cannot do two things simultaneously,” said New Delhi’s traffic commissioner Qamar Ahmed, welcoming the ruling, which goes into effect April 9 and only covers New Delhi, a city of 14 million people.Those caught smoking while driving will have to pay a $32 fine, a large sum by local standards. Offenders caught more than five times will have their licenses revoked, the court said. The same fines apply to using a mobile phone and the less well-defined offense of “dangerous driving.”Many drivers in New Delhi welcomed the court ruling, saying anything that would control chaos on the city’s roads — where many drivers regard red lights as suggestions and right of way is often determined by vehicle size — is a positive step.The new codes are “a very good idea. Traffic is very difficult here, it’s frightening,” said 18-year-old student driver Ankita Maniktala.“Sometimes, I don’t know which way the cars are going to be going,” she said, referring to the accepted habit of driving the wrong way down streets to create short cuts.New Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said yesterday that police were “ready to enforce the court decision.” But most drivers were skeptical, noting that with the capital’s notoriously corrupt traffic police it would be easy to avoid penalties.“In India, I doubt this can be enforced. I can just give a bribe of 50 rupees [$1] and get away without paying it,” said 20-year-old Chetan Rawla.New Delhi’s roads seem an unlikely place to pioneer road safety codes. The streets are choked with some 4 million buses, trucks, cars, motorcycles, bicycles, auto-rickshaws, bicycle-rickshaws, and horse-drawn carts, as well as millions of pedestrians, free-roaming cows, and the occasional elephant.That’s despite some 2 million people commuting daily on a metro rail introduced in parts of the capital in 2002.

New Delhi Becomes First City To Ban Smoking at the Wheel

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