IT is not very often I agree with a politician of any persuasion. However, in this case, I totally agree with him. But not for the reasons he gives. May I explain.

Most car and lorry drivers when in "control" of their vehicles tend to be too relaxed, especially on motorways. One sees them driving along, elbow out the window or one hand on the wheel, chatting away to a passenger and generally not looking where they are going. We've all done it. So, in that respect, a smoker in a car or lorry, smoking with a cigarette in one hand, is not in any less control than your average non-smoking driver.

What I am particularly concerned about is, what happens when the cigarette, or worse, cigar is finished?

The window is opened and, without looking, the cigarette is cast into the airstream, to be dumped in my face!

Yes, I'm the poor guy on the bike coming up behind you who has just got a face full of red-hot ash.

This is a regular occurrence on motorways and before now, when I've been stationary alongside cars, the same thing has happened. It's not just cigarettes either. I've been hit by half-eaten apples, usually ejected from the back of a car by children, and empty tins of fizzy drink.

So, before the powers-that-be state categorically that the accident rate of smokers in vehicles is not significant, try adding up the accidents caused by same. At 70mph on a motorway, being hit in the face by a lit cigarette, a tin of drink or other food items and, as a consequence, losing control of one's bike is, more often than not, fatal.

Usual conclusion to loss of control? Driver error. Too fast and not reading the road. No one notices the applecore or cigar in the gutter, the culprit in front having driven on without noticing the chaos behind. The law should be changed to outlaw the disposal of any item from a moving vehicle -- and made a very serious one indeed.

Confiscation of vehicle would be a good start. I'm sure every bike rider reading this will wholeheartedly agree.

Ainslie Casson

Church Walks

Westhoughton, Bolton