MOTORISTS who light up at the wheel will be prosecuted to ensure safety on Merseyside's roads, police warned last night.

Officers across the region are being told they are expected to be actively on the look-out for people lighting cigarettes while driving, the Daily Post can reveal.

Merseyside police Acting Deputy Chief Constable Bernard Lawson said on an internet forum that officers would use existing legislation to prosecute smokers.

Unlike talking on a mobile phone while driving, smoking behind the wheel is not illegal.

But motorists can be fined, or even hauled before the courts, for doing anything that causes them to drive without due care and attention, or fail to control their vehicle.

Smokers’ groups last night reacted with anger to the suggestion they will be specifically targeted by police, saying it would be tantamount to “persecution”.

But, in response to a question about smoking while driving, ADCC Lawson said the aim was to improve safety on Merseyside’s roads.

He said that, from now on, officers in his Road Policing Department “would be expected to be on the look-out” for drivers lighting up at the wheel.

He said any inappropriate behaviour which reduced a driver’s ability to control their vehicle would be targeted – and trying to light a cigarette while driving would be deemed in this category.

Neil Rafferty, spokesman for pro-smoking lobby group FOREST (Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco), said: “This is going too far.

“I am aware of the recommendations not to smoke while driving that are in the Highway Code.

“But the police should only stop and prosecute motorists if there is genuine worry and fear about the state of their driving – not if they are lighting a cigarette.

“The focus should be on safe driving rather than just on the act of smoking itself.

“Motorists can surely drive safely while simply holding a cigarette.

“It would seem that yet again smokers are being targeted unfairly.”

ADCC Lawson pointed out that the Highway Code states drivers should not smoke and drive as it causes a distraction.

He stressed someone holding a lit cigarette while driving may be treated more leniently than someone trying to actually light a cigarette while moving.

He said officers would take into account the circumstances of any particular incident before issuing penalties.

“A driver with a cigarette in their mouth is unlikely to be committing the offence,” said ADCC Lawson. “Whereas a driver seen attempting to hold a cigarette with one hand while trying to light it with the other, may be deemed to be committing the said offence.