Trucker busted for smoking in his 'workplace'

Trucker busted for smoking in his 'workplace'


[link to www.windsorstar.com]


By Trevor Wilhelm, The Windsor StarOctober 6, 2009Comments (369)
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Truck driver Brad Weber, 44, who lives near Owen Sound, takes a smoke break outside his truck at the Husky truck stop on County Road 46 east of Windsor on Wednesday night. He was reacting to news charges were laid against a fellow trucker for smoking inside his rig.
Photograph by: JASON KRYK, THE WINDSOR STARTruckers from across Canada were fuming Wednesday night as word spread that police hit a driver with a $305 fine for smoking in his rig, because it’s considered a workplace.

Essex County OPP stopped the tractor-trailer on Wednesday around noon after noticing the lone driver headed down Highway 401 in Lakeshore with a cigarette between his lips. The officer ticketed the 48-year-old London driver for smoking in an enclosed workplace.

Even some non-smoking drivers said the government should butt out of their business.

“It’s just going too far,” said Larry Jespersen, a 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.”

Const. Shawna Coulter said it’s the first time Essex County OPP have enforced the legislation, which has been in place since May 31, 2006. The health unit has handed out about 10 tickets to taxi drivers after receiving complaints.

The Smoke-Free Ontario Act states that “no person shall smoke tobacco or hold lighted tobacco in any enclosed public place or enclosed workplace.”

Neil MacKenzie, the health unit’s tobacco program manager, said that includes the interior of a vehicle. He said the rule still applies to truck drivers who own their trucks and are the only ones who drive or ride in them.

“Absolutely,” said MacKenzie. “If it’s a work vehicle, then they are required to have it smoke free.”

When asked about the opinions of some truckers, MacKenzie said it’s not his place to decide whether the law goes too far in dictating people’s behaviour.

“We enforce the legislation that’s provided to us,” he said. “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.”

Others were more eager to have their say.

“It’s bogus, it’s a money grab,” said Brad Weber, who owns his truck and has smoked for 20 years. “That’s all it is. He’s not affecting anybody. If there’s nobody else in the truck with him, then he’s done nothing wrong. I could see if there were kids in the vehicle, I could see it if there was another non-smoking driver in the vehicle. But just running down the road by yourself having a cigarette — money grab.”

Jespersen said drivers should be able to smoke in their trucks because for many, their workplace is also their home.

“I go out for two or three weeks at a time,” he said. “Out of the 21 nights, I probably sleep in that truck 19.”

John Falzon, who drives for a local trucking company, likes the law. He said he’s allergic to cigarette smoke and recently had to share a truck with a smoker.

“I’m being subjected to carcinogens and things that are making me sick,” said Falzon. “This is our workplace. We should not have to be subject to that. Every day I’d get in I’d see cigarette ashes on the dash, it stunk like cigarette smoke and it wasn’t fair. I don’t smoke. I try to take care of myself. If there are more strict rules about smoking in the workplace, smoking in trucks, then it would protect some of us who actually care about our health.”

But even he said that if someone is an owner-operator of their own truck, they should be able to smoke and drive.

“If it’s your own vehicle, you’re the owner-operator, then that’s your choice,” said Falzon. “But if it’s a company vehicle that has to be shared with other people, I think smoking should be completely outlawed.”

MacKenzie said banning smoking in vehicles might also help people kick the habit.

“It might be an opportunity to have one less place to smoke that people come that much closer to quitting.”

Coulter added butting out while driving also eliminates one more distraction. She compared it to talking on the phone and driving, which has recently been outlawed.

“They deemed that to be a distraction,” said Coulter. “So lighting a cigarette, to me, is a no-brainer. When you’re smoking you’re not paying attention to the road. One, you’re lighting it and you’ve got fire inside a vehicle. Two, you’re going to be butting it out. Whether you butt it out the window or an ashtray, you’re eyes are coming off the road.”