Hibr

Don't smoke and drive

OPINION

I was driving in my adorable blue car on the road leading to the UNESCO palace. My windows were closed, the air conditioner was on and I was trying to calm myself down. I had just discovered that I had taken the wrong turn, and naturally I would have to ask for directions. Thus I was condemned to leave my cooled space and step into the unbearable heat.

Suddenly, something highly unexpected happened, taking me aback, and making me put my plans on hold. A tiny, white-colored, unidentified flying object was coming towards me at approximately 80 km/hr. I got distracted and was close to bumping into another car. I was able to distinguish its driver gesturing and most probably cursing. “Good thing I had my windows up,” I thought to myself; but that’s another story.

Now back to the actual story: I was driving in my blue adorable car and that obnoxious inch-long object started flying towards my left eye. Was my contact lens the target? I instantly blinked and the object disappeared, but it wasn’t more than two seconds before I saw it sliding swiftly on the front part of my car. Studied from a high angle, I could tell what it was! A cigarette! Steadily, it rolled down to the road, and I drove over it. Destroyed, it lay there on the asphalt and I couldn’t care less. The taxi driver just over there was the mother station from which the cigarette came from. As I sped up to get him and his car out of sight I pondered: Why do people throw what’s left of their cigarettes out of the window? Another question: Why was smoking in the car such a necessity? Isn’t driving supposed to be a task that requires complete concentration?

It’s true that I’ve exhausted every ounce of sarcasm to relate this remarkable experience of mine; but a serious issue lies beneath. What should an eco-advocating, environment-loving, non-smoker do in such a situation? Should I go around distributing disposable ashtrays for drivers/smokers? Or should I maybe fetch a net, stick my arm out of the car, and go cigarette hunting? 

What is discussed here is becoming a recurrent habit that’s infecting the streets with smokers trying to multi-task by fusing their daily driving experience with clouds of white fog that maybe for them make the world look brighter; but shouldn’t your freedom end where my nose begin? Who should be responsible for obliterating this problem that’s annoying many non-smoking drivers? Me, you or maybe the government? I will try to figure that out soon - provided I don’t get attacked again, of course.