Taiwan’s smoking-while-driving rules due July 1

Restrictions on people smoking while driving in Taiwan are to be brought in from July 1, according to a story in the Taipei Times.

Some details of the new regulations were given towards the end of last year but at that time it was not known when they would be imposed.

According to the Times, motorists who smoke and drive and consequently affect other motorists are liable to face a fine of up to NT$600.

The paper explained that other motorists could be affected by the ashes or smoke from the cigarettes of smoking drivers.

And drivers could be deemed to be in breach of the regulations if the lighting or littering of cigarettes threatened the safety of other road users.

But according to a story in The China Post in December, the sequence of actions involved in smoking while driving, such as lighting a cigarette, exhaling smoke and holding a cigarette, are all punishable acts under the new rules.

The Post said that according to the text of the amendments, the critical point was whether others were affected by these acts, which were most applicable to busy roads.