Study: Banning Smoking Increases Drunken Driving

[Gunny]

MADISON — Enacting city smoking bans appears to increase drunken driving, according to a new national study of arrests by Wisconsin researchers.

Fatal accidents involving alcohol increased after communities banned public smoking, the study to be released by the Journal of Public Economics found. The authors attributed the increase to people driving farther to drink, either to a place with an outdoor smoking area or a city without a ban.

“The increased miles driven by drivers who wish to smoke and drink offsets any reduction in driving from smokers choosing to stay home after a ban, resulting in increased alcohol-related accidents,” the study says.

The researchers, Scott Adams, of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Chad Cotti, now at the University of South Carolina, said they were surprised by the results.

“We thought we would see a reduction,” Adams said. “Our first thought was, ‘Throw it away, it must be wrong.’”

But it wasn’t, he said.

more ... http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,347751,00.html

I observed this when I was stationed in SoCal. The nutcases haven't taken over here yet.

I'm still waiting for them to ban fat, slovenly slugs who offend my sense of aesthetics and make me physically ill having to look at their lardasses waddle across a room.

 

[Ravi]

You know where this will lead though, don't you? A nationwide ban on smoke free bars to protect us.

Groan.

 

[Shogun]

Dammit Gunny.. you post all the good stories.


Indeed, a ban to keep a ban from killing more people than the hypothetical estimates of SHS causes cancer. Sounds like a MARKET FORCE to me!




funny.. pink lungers have always claimed that a flood of new smoke free customers would flock to businesses.... Wierd how, as it turns out, bar loving people seem to be flocking AWAY from smoke free bars to places that still cater to smokers.. Ahh well, it wouldn't be the first time a pink lunger piece of shit would be proven wrong. Evidence sure is a bitch that way.