THE ASSOCIATED PRESS - Some may call them “trucker bombs,” but road crews that have to pick them up have another word for them — disgusting.
Posted on 12/28/2005 9:22:21 AM PST by Cagey
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Trucker bombs, torpedoes and Mountain Dew are the nicknames for these fluid-filled roadside bottles.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS - Some may call them “trucker bombs,” but road crews that have to pick them up have another word for them — disgusting.
A bottle containing some unknown liquid near Nebraska Highway 50 and Interstate 80 may be an infamous “trucker bomb.”
But for the highway crews that have to pick them up, there’s only one word for them — disgusting.
Each year, truckers and other drivers toss out hundreds of plastic bottles and jugs filled with urine along Interstate 80 in Nebraska and Iowa. It’s a problem on highways across the country.
The bottle barrage has gotten bad enough that some states, including Colorado, Wyoming and Washington, have imposed new, tougher fines for those who lob the bombs.
Washington put up posters at rest areas and truck stops showing a milk jug partially filled with a yellow liquid. The message on the poster — “OK, one last time: This is not a urinal.”
For road crews, there are health concerns, plus a serious gross-out factor when they have to pick up a milk jug with that yellow stuff sloshing around inside.
Even worse is getting sprayed when a mower blade hits one and the plastic container explodes.
Washington State developed this poster to raise awareness among drivers about fines they face for tossing bottles of urine onto highways.
“It’s pretty nasty,” said Scott Randall, a maintenance crew chief for the Nebraska Department of Roads in Grand Island. “It stays with you all day.”
In recent years, more cabs have been installed on tractor mowers used by Nebraska road workers, in part to protect them from getting doused.
Highway officials in Nebraska and Iowa say the bottles are an ongoing problem, but there are no plans to seek bigger littering fines for them.
Littering in Nebraska carries a fine of $50 to $100, depending on the type and amount. Iowa has a $35 fine.
State road supervisors say truckers aren’t the only drivers failing to take a proper potty pit stop. But they say truckers probably account for the bulk of the problem.
Nance Harris, spokeswoman for the Nebraska Trucking Association, said there is no excuse for flinging the bottles, no matter who does it.
“Anyone who is tossing human waste out of a vehicle onto the side of the road is a pig,” she said. “It’s bad behavior.”
She said the vast majority of truckers are responsible and don’t toss the bottles.
Trucker Bill Westover of Wahoo, Neb., agreed.
“It’s like any other profession,” he said. “You always have your professional guys and guys who aren’t professional.”
He said he uses restrooms, but he said the bottles are a problem.
“It’s a dirty habit,” he said.
Westover said he isn’t making excuses for truckers who do it but said drivers need to make good time.
“They are under a lot of pressure to stay moving,” he said.
Truckers often face tight deadlines for making their deliveries. Bad weather and traffic can cause delays.
What’s most frustrating for maintenance workers is finding the bottles at rest areas or ramps leading to them, sometimes just a few yards from garbage cans.
“The whole thing is hard to understand,” said Jim Bane, district maintenance manager for the Iowa Department of Transportation in Atlantic. “It’s because of thoughtlessness.”
It’s been a problem for years, but it’s tough to say whether the problem is getting worse in Nebraska and Iowa.
Bane says he probably has seen slightly fewer bottles in the last few years on his stretch of I-80 between Des Moines and Omaha, although there still are hundreds each year.
There seems to be more trash overall on I-80 in the Grand Island and Kearney areas, which probably means there are more of the bottles, said Cindy Jelinek, state maintenance superintendent for that part of Nebraska.
Crews wear rubber gloves when they pick up the bottles, which are put in plastic bags and taken to landfills along with other trash.
There’s no doubt the bottles are unsanitary, but the health risks are low for anyone touching the urine, said Dr. Marvin Bittner, an infectious disease specialist at Creighton University Medical Center.
But Randall, the road crew chief, says he still worries about picking up an infection from one of the bottles and wishes drivers would be more considerate.
“Throw it in a trash can,” he said, “instead of chucking it onto the road for someone else to pick up.”
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS - Some may call them “trucker bombs,” but road crews that have to pick them up have another word for them — disgusting.
The pilot's friend.
I'm glad Pilot's don't toss those things out the window when full.
As a youngster, we traveled in our trusty station wagon on long trips. Having a car load of boys, Mother always had a Folgers can with a plastic lid available. She emptied it only in a gas station toilet.
Are you sure they don't?
Brother?
health risks are low for anyone touching the urine
See! I told you there was nothing wrong with me using the office water fountain.
Owl_Eagle(If what I just wrote makes you sad or angry,
Maybe that explains "Yellow Snow"!
Living along a highway, I get far more diapers thrown out by the... ah, ah truck drivers?
Well if you want to parade around and show the whole office what you've got, more power to you!
Granted this is in Nebraska but it's interesting that they don't address the "bombs" left by the illegal aliens as well. Somehow I don't think this all the trucker's fault. I would hazard a guess that the truckers really aren't the bulk of the problem.
"Granted this is in Nebraska but it's interesting that they don't address the "bombs" left by the illegal aliens as well. Somehow I don't think this all the trucker's fault. I would hazard a guess that the truckers really aren't the bulk of the problem."
The ones down near the border region, if any, are probably from illegal aliens, but on the sides of highways across most of America, that to me speaks of people driving long distances who just don't want to stop. Let's not insert an issue where there isn't one.
As a consequence, they need to pee and freguently carry baby diapers in plastic bags. They urinate into the diaper and seal the baggie.
You'll see them extracting them from the cockpit after flights. The pressure change due to altitude makes them look as if they were vacuum sealed.
Now theres a good idea for the big rigs...a "P" tube.....
Ick. Just ick. I'll bet it is, especially after that clear plastic bomb ferments in the summer sun for about a week.
The simple solution here is to invoke the interstate commerce clause and force all truckers who driver under DOT regulations to submit a DNA sample...
Don't laugh...
We havn't even begun to see how far Govmint reaches...
I would hazard a guess that the truckers really aren't the bulk of the problem.
Urologists? I always wondered what they did with all those bottles they ask patients to leave a sample in.
i just always used the right side drive wheels,clean wheels too.
Might cut down on tailgating...
whose pee is this! Sir your dna has been found in 35 trucker bombs across the US
Urologists?
"if not truckers"
I apparently didn't make my supposition clear. I don't think the truckers are the bulk of the problem, I think it's illegal aliens. They have no problem stopping and peeing by the side of the road, I've seen them. If you have a large batch crammed in a van going to who knows where, they gotta go IN something.
New Littering Law Enacted, Fines to Stay in Local Community
Reduced Fines Expected to Lead to Increased Enforcement
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (Feb. 7) - An act approved by the Arkansas Legislature and signed by Governor Mike Huckabee is expected to lead to increased enforcement of the state's littering laws, plus put extra money into the coffers of local governments.
The amendment to Arkansas Code 8-6-404 reduces the fine for littering for first-time offenders to $100 and eight hours of compulsory community service from the previous $1,000 or 100 hours of community service for the unclassified misdemeanor.
snip
Persons convicted of a second or subsequent offense occurring within three years of the first offense will be guilty of a Class A misdemeanor and could be fined $1,000 and 100 hours of community service.
Any person found to have committed acts of littering in furtherance of or as a part of a commercial enterprise shall be guilty of commercial littering, which is a Class A misdemeanor. Offenders may be fined up to $1,000 and 100 hours of community service, even for a first offense.
The Official Publication
of the Owner-Operator
Independent Drivers
Association
States consider bills to combat litter
The plague of drivers littering highways in Colorado and Arkansas has led lawmakers in each state to pursue legislation that would enact stiffer penalties for such acts.
The Colorado Senate unanimously approved a measure Jan. 25 that would hike the fine for tossing containers of human waste along highways in the state to $500 from the current $35.
In testimony before the Senate Transportation Committee Jan. 18, Colorado Department of Transportation maintenance supervisor Randy Dobyns said he and other agency workers often pick up as many as 50 containers of urine and excrement a week that have been discarded by truckers and other motorists on the sides of roadways.
According to the Denver Post, Dobyns said some workers on CDOT lawn-mowing crews have been spattered with the waste when mower blades chew up the containers hidden in the grass.
A number of CDOT workers who work on highway litter patrols have sought anti-hepatitis injections as a preventive measure.
The graphic details were enough for the legislators, who quickly passed the bill to significantly raise the fine. The measure also applies to diapers that are thrown along the highway.
http://tinyurl.com/97t3j
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