Photo: en.milligazete.com.tr
Turkey is a bad place to be driving through if you’re a smoker, regardless if you’re a driver or a passenger, and if you’re traveling in your personal car. More than 5,000 people fined in a single day can attest to that.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is against smoking and he’s credited with the current measures to discourage the unhealthy habit in the population. He’s also the man behind the existing all-out ban on smoking in public places and, more recently, in personal vehicles.
On September 25, more than 5,000 people were fined for smoking in their cars, both drivers and passengers, Hurriyet Daily News reports. The bust was a major operation, involving over 37,000 police personnel and 169 sniffer dogs. In major cities, police can access CCTV for photos of the license plates of cars in which suspects are smoking.
Mind you, we’re talking about regular tobacco here. Turkey isn’t just a country with millions of heavy smokers, but also one where smoking of illicit tobacco consumption has increased in recent years. Politicians and health organizations believe more drastic measures, alongside with education, can discourage the people from smoking.
The raid on September 25 included checks of some 150,000 vehicles, the Interior Ministry says, as cited by the same publication. In addition to smokers, other offenders got busted: 9,000 drivers were fined for lack of proper documentation or having faulty car parts, 2,000 cars were altogether disqualified from traffic, 690 suspects were arrested for a variety of crimes (including murder, gang activity and drug offenses), and 6 missing people were recovered.
“I sometimes see drivers smoking in cars, and whenever I see them, I warn them, tell them it's shameful. Now we're working on something to stop both drivers and backseat passengers from smoking,” Erdogan said ahead of the operation, on the topic of the car smoking ban.
On September 25, more than 5,000 people were fined for smoking in their cars, both drivers and passengers, Hurriyet Daily News reports. The bust was a major operation, involving over 37,000 police personnel and 169 sniffer dogs. In major cities, police can access CCTV for photos of the license plates of cars in which suspects are smoking.
Mind you, we’re talking about regular tobacco here. Turkey isn’t just a country with millions of heavy smokers, but also one where smoking of illicit tobacco consumption has increased in recent years. Politicians and health organizations believe more drastic measures, alongside with education, can discourage the people from smoking.
The raid on September 25 included checks of some 150,000 vehicles, the Interior Ministry says, as cited by the same publication. In addition to smokers, other offenders got busted: 9,000 drivers were fined for lack of proper documentation or having faulty car parts, 2,000 cars were altogether disqualified from traffic, 690 suspects were arrested for a variety of crimes (including murder, gang activity and drug offenses), and 6 missing people were recovered.
“I sometimes see drivers smoking in cars, and whenever I see them, I warn them, tell them it's shameful. Now we're working on something to stop both drivers and backseat passengers from smoking,” Erdogan said ahead of the operation, on the topic of the car smoking ban.
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