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What strikes me as odd is that it seems as if the people talking about the dangers of driving and smoking seem to not be current or former smokers....

OK, I'm a former smoker who will talk about the dangers of smoking while driving One think to note is that I didn't smoke while driving (didn't allow it in my car), but I am a former smoker

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What people seem to be forgetting is that smoking becomes almost a reflex. You don't need to pay attention to it to do it successfully. Which is also one of it's nastiest little tricks.

One of my friends was a smoker, and training to be a pilot. He would smoke while driving, but was so uncoordinated that he held the cigarette in his right hand. Every time he went to ash out the window, the whole car would swerve 1/2 a lane to the left. On a side note, he was actively scanning the dashboard as practice for his instrument rating. Every time he did (about once every 45secs or so), he would hit his brakes...

Of course, another friend of mine drove a standard, and it had a crushed subframe. When he engaged the clutch or disengaged the clutch, the car would try to leap one way or the other. He could drive that car without missing a beat while smoking, and the passenger wouldn't even feel it. He would just do some crazy countersteering like it was second nature... getting him in a normal car was scary as hell though. He'd try to counteract something that wasn't there and go leaping off into another lane anyway

The point of this rambling post is that smoking can be dangerous, depending on the driver. Then again, there are people out there who don't need any distractions while driving, they create their own.