{"id":12959,"date":"2024-10-03T09:16:59","date_gmt":"2024-10-03T09:16:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/uk-vaping-drivers-warned-of-huge-fines-and-nine-points-on-licence\/"},"modified":"2025-01-06T16:09:45","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T16:09:45","slug":"uk-vaping-drivers-warned-of-huge-fines-and-nine-points-on-licence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/post\/uk-vaping-drivers-warned-of-huge-fines-and-nine-points-on-licence\/","title":{"rendered":"UK: Vaping drivers warned of huge fines and nine points on licence"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"clear-before-content-2\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;margin-bottom: 20px;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;text-align: center;\" id=\"clear-309976516\"><img src=\"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/caafc5c68900198b80aee12c11b50184.avif\" alt=\"\"   style=\"display: inline-block;\" \/><\/div><p id=\"\"><strong>Motorists who vape have been warned they could face a hefty \u00a35,000 fine as well as nine points on their licence.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p id=\"\">Those caught vaping while driving in the UK could be in breach of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legislation.gov.uk\/ukpga\/1988\/52\/section\/3\" id=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Road Traffic Act<\/a> and punished accordingly.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p id=\"\">Although vaping and driving is not illegal in itself, police have warned it can result in disciplinary action if it is found to \u201csignificantly\u201d impair the driver\u2019s visibility.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p id=\"\">The Surrey and Sussex Roads Policing Unit says that the &#8220;smoke&#8221; emitted by vapes is a potential distraction that can have \u201cdire\u201d consequences.<\/p>\n<p id=\"\">The police unit warned: \u201cAll it takes is a moment to become distracted and potentially cause a crash or, even worse, a fatality. There are no laws prohibiting vaping. However, you need to be in full and proper control of your vehicle at all times.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p id=\"\">\u201cFirstly, any person who is distracted in any way could be guilty of an offence \u2013 whether that be smoking, vaping, eating, etc. In investigations that we conduct, any distraction would need to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"\">According to section three of the Road Traffic Act, if a person drives a vehicle on a road or other public place without \u201cdue care and attention\u201d, or without reasonable consideration for other persons using the road or place, they are guilty of an offence.<\/p>\n<p id=\"\">Anything that obscures a driver&#8217;s vision, including vape or cigarette smoke, can therefore lead to them being prosecuted.<\/p>\n<p id=\"\">Markus Lindblad, from vape store Northerner, said: &#8220;When the rules were implemented, vapes weren\u2019t around, so whilst the rules don\u2019t specifically state that it\u2019s illegal to vape in the car, it does state that anything that\u2019s seen to be restricting a driver&#8217;s view, such as smoke clouds, can be liable for enforcement.<\/p>\n<blockquote id=\"\"><p>&#8220;If you\u2019re driving and the police notice you\u2019re vaping, you can be fined up to \u00a3100 on the spot. However, depending on the seriousness of the case, if you\u2019re caught vaping and end up in an accident, then you could be facing a fine of up to \u00a35,000, nine penalty points, and even a court-imposed driving ban.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p id=\"\">Mr Lindblad added that passengers who want to vape should ask the driver first.<\/p>\n<p id=\"\">&#8220;There are no laws to say passengers aren\u2019t allowed to vape in the car,\u201d he said. \u201cHowever, they should ask the driver permission first so they are able to assess the situation to avoid it affecting their visibility in any way.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote id=\"\"><p>\u201cIt\u2019s probably advised that anyone vaping in the car should make sure that the driver&#8217;s visibility isn\u2019t affected by the smoke clouds and that windows can also be opened too.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\u200d<\/p>\n<div class=\"clear-after-content-2\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;margin-bottom: 20px;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;text-align: center;\" id=\"clear-1806529061\"><img src=\"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/caafc5c68900198b80aee12c11b50184.avif\" alt=\"\"   style=\"display: inline-block;\" \/><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Motorists who vape have been warned they could face a hefty \u00a35,000 fine as well as nine points on their licence.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":990002,"featured_media":12965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[257],"tags":[],"slider":[],"class_list":["post-12959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/990002"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12959"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15901,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12959\/revisions\/15901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12959"},{"taxonomy":"slider","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/slider?post=12959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}