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Truck driver caught on camera brushing teeth behind the wheel

Hampshire police have released shocking CCTV footage of drivers brushing their teeth, applying make-up and using phones while on the motorway. .

A UK truck driver with more regard to his dental hygiene than his safety has been caught on camera by police brushing his teeth while driving.

Hampshire police released a video on Wednesday showing a driver holding water in one hand and a toothbrush in the other while he trying to steer. Coordinated, but also a terrible decision.

The video was part of the road regulation campaign Operation Tramline, according to the description, which led to driving offense charges against 198 people, mostly for distractions such as applying makeup or talking on the phone. Officers hired an elevated vehicle and filmed out the window to catch drivers who weren't paying attention to the road, the description says.

[ Related: Drunk driver apparently confesses to killing man in video ]

KIA Canada recently circulated a print ad featuring a tube of lipstick resembling a bullet, with the slogan "Applying makeup while driving can be deadly." Eating is also an oft-cited driving distraction, though that hasn't stopped KFC's recent unveiling of Go Cups designed to fit in a vehicle's cup holder. More troublesome, still, are cell phones: the organization Texting and Driving Safety put the number of U.S. crashes involving cell phones in 2011 at 1.3 million.

Cell phones have fueled discussion about distracted driving in recent years, but this New York Times piece from 1993 shows that fewer technological distractions didn't stop drivers from eating cereal, brushing their teeth or reading the newspaper behind the wheel twenty years ago, either.