The mayor of a forest town in Gironde has recently passed a by-law prohibiting smoking by car if it is not equipped with an ashtray, while a senator has asked the government to return ashtrays to cars.
Hervé Seyve, LR Mayor of Saint-Jean d'Illac, 17 km from Bordeaux, took the decree at the end of July, while in times of heat wave, the prefecture of Gironde had raised its vigilance "forest fires" at the orange [3 on a scale of 5].
A fine of 15 euros
Until the end of September, it is therefore "forbidden to smoke in vehicles with no ashtray", a ban that applies "for vehicles traveling near forests or parked vehicles, up to a distance of 200 meters from the woods, heaths, pines ". It only applies when the forest fire risk is "at least at level 3".
"With a fine of about 15 euros, it is not a question of repressing, but of marking the spirits," said Hervé Seyve Friday, saying he was "ulcerated to see several times this summer, people throw their butts their car, on highways running along wooded areas "on the town.
Saint-Jean d'Illac was the end of July 2015 the scene of a great forest fire, one of the largest in the decade in the Gironde, which burned for five days about 600 hectares of pine. The trail of a cigarette butt thrown at the roadside was favored.
Senator asks for ashtrays back in cars
In a parallel initiative, a Senator from Gironde, Nathalie Delattre, in contact with Hervé Seyve, on Tuesday sent a written question to the government asking for "the obligation for automakers to provide an ashtray in vehicles to fight against the fire risk ".
The senator said in a statement that "the real problem is that the builders no longer systematically provide ashtray in vehicles, the reflex then becomes throwing the butt out the window." She continues: "It is quite possible to impose a number of technical constraints, this is already the case in the Highway Code, in the regulatory part relating to the technical provisions of the vehicle. to the government to take responsibility! "
The Gironde, covered with nearly 50% of forest, is the first department of France in number of fire starts per year [on average around 1,000], even if the total area destroyed [about 1,000 hectares] remains relatively modest.