Urine-filled 'trucker bombs' costly to state taxpayers

Cybergal · Jan 14, 2008

Urine-filled 'trucker bombs' costly to state taxpayers

1/14/08
Record-Searchlight (subscription), CA

Chances are you've seen them along Interstate 5.
Plastic sports drink bottles or milk jugs half filled with brownish-yellow liquid.
"That's not apple juice," said Cliff Peterson, California Department of Transportation spokesman.
No, it's not.
Those bottles are filled with urine, and they make highway clean-up crews cringe.
Known as "trucker bombs" or "pee bottles," the impromptu potties have been a problem on Northern California's highways for years, Peterson said.
In 1999, when he was head of maintenance for Caltrans' second district, Peterson said he sent crews on a urine bottle cleanup along Interstate 5 in Shasta County.
In just a few days, crews collected more than 350 gallons of urine along a 67-mile stretch of freeway from Cottonwood to Dunsmuir.
"It's only gotten worse since then," he said.
The bottles also are costly to remove, Peterson said.
Because crews can't be sure if the fluid really is urine, hazardous materials specialists must be brought in to test the liquid before it's disposed in a sewage system.
Although Peterson couldn't provide a cost locally for disposing of the urine, he said litter cleanup, which includes the disposal of pee bottles, costs California taxpayers upward of $50 million a year.
And it's not just urine that's getting tossed.
Peterson said containers filled with feces and other human waste like used dialysis supplies and syringes are becoming ever more common along the highway.
Peterson said the bottles of urine in particular pose a health hazards to road workers -- especially those who run the mowers that trim foliage along the highway.
The bottles have a tendency to explode when they're run over -- even more so when it's hot outside.
Long-haul truckers, Peterson said, are mostly to blame for the urine bottles.
Saedra Wederbrook, the local Caltrans Adopt-a-Highway Coordinator, said the bottles often are found in areas where truckers pull off the road to stop or along rural off-ramps where it's easy to chuck a bottle without being spotted.
Her highway cleanup volunteers are advised not to touch the offensive containers, she said.
Exits on I-5 along the Sacramento Canyon between Lakehead and Dunsmuir are particularly bad, Wederbrook said.
Those in the trucking industry have mixed reactions to the bottles.
Clayton Boyce, spokesman for the American Trucking Association, said he's not so sure truckers are the ones responsible.
"We can't say if they are or how many are from truckers," he said, adding that regardless of who's dumping the bottles "it's embarrassing, it's breaking the law, and it's littering."
He said most of the trucking companies his organization represents have policies forbidding such behavior.
Likewise, Julie Sauls, a spokeswoman for the California Trucking Association, said she's not sure it's truckers dropping the bombs that bear their name.
But with many rest areas closing around the state, the problem is only going to increase regardless of who is doing it, she said.
Others say it's the stress and deadlines truckers face that force some to leave the bottles behind.
In a 2005 interview with MSNBC, Todd Spencer, the executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, said the roadside bottles are indicators of those pressures.
"What actually drives this more than anything else is that the vast majority of drivers are paid only for miles driven," and that forces many not to take proper rest breaks, he said.
Interstate truckers can work only 70 hours in an eight-day period, according to the California Highway Patrol.
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rex · Jan 14, 2008

No Ma'am, it's not stress and deadlines that causes truckers to illegally dispose of these waste bottles. HOTLINE- it's just laziness pure and simple and if someone told me that OTR truckers weren't responsible for 90% of this offensive trash, I'd laugh in their face. I mean c'mon, who are we trying to kid? This behavior is just one more symptom of the sorry state of our industry and a good many of the people in it.

Want an example? About six months ago I counted 6 (SIX!) pee bottles scattered around on the ground at a Nevada truck pull-off. What really chapped my hide though was the fact that every one of these bottles was within 50 (fifty!!!) feet of an empty dumpster. Don't think that's a good example of pure laziness? Just take a look around and notice the increased number of slobby truckers you see these days. We wonder why truckers seem to get very little respect?
rx

liltruck · Jan 14, 2008

Can DNA be traced in Urine?

Thank goodness there are no "Poop Bags". Like when we take our canines to a park and clean up after them.

Leaving your urine behind in a container is like animals marking their territory.
If this is a way to show the public just how PI**ed off (SOME )Truckers in the Industry are about being pushed to the edge , I would hope there is a better way to get their messages across.

MedicineMan · Jan 14, 2008

liltruck said: ↑

Can DNA be traced in Urine?

Thank goodness there are no "Poop Bags". Like when we take our canines to a park and clean up after them.

Leaving your urine behind in a container is like animals marking their territory.
If this is a way to show the public just how PI**ed off (SOME )Truckers in the Industry are about being pushed to the edge , I would hope there is a better way to get their messages across.
Click to expand...

What did you not understand about feces filled containers? Mabey you need to look up feces.

But personally I try to pee on CA as much as posible

myminpins · Jan 14, 2008

rex said: ↑

No Ma'am, it's not stress and deadlines that causes truckers to illegally dispose of these waste bottles. HOTLINE- it's just laziness pure and simple and if someone told me that OTR truckers weren't responsible for 90% of this offensive trash, I'd laugh in their face. I mean c'mon, who are we trying to kid? This behavior is just one more symptom of the sorry state of our industry and a good many of the people in it.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Who the heck else would do it??? No one driving a car would - they'll just find a spot to stop - it's easy to find places to stop in a CAR!!!

OF COURSE it's truckers!!! I've seen them do it, too. I have no problem with you doing this (using a bottle for emergencies) but the least you could do is dump the contents in a toilet next time you're in one and throw the bottle away in a trash can!!!!

Pur48Ted · Jan 14, 2008

Almost as bad as the urine filled ones...

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/trucker-bomb/1600225658

truckin916 · Jan 14, 2008

This just makes me sick to my stomach! C'Mon guys pull into the rest area and use the facilities, get out of your truck in the morning and go in and use the restroom! It's really not that hard...what is it too cold outside for you? WAAAAAAAAAAAA......I see pee bottles at truck stops all the time and it's just SICK! With all the rest areas along I-5 in California there is just NO EXCUSE not to stop and use one. It's no wonder truckers get a bad name in the eyes of some people.

And if you truely have an emergency and need to use a bottle, then have the manners to stop at a rest area and empty it into a toilet where it belongs!

Tip · Jan 14, 2008

When a new truck stop opens to all, maybe a select driver could christen the lot by breaking a bottle of piss on it, sort of what the Navy does when it christens a new ship.

I think the reason some urea bottles end up near dumpsters is because the drivers dump them at night and can't see those dumpsters? Drivers CAN'T be that lazy, can they? Don't answer that. If drivers are falling off the road on the Dragon, yeah, they're pretty #### lazy. Take a look at that picture with all those 53-footers in the ditches with the tandems in the normal position. If you have to take the Dragon and your're pulling a 53, you must push the tandems forward as far as they'll go. If you're not too lazy, that is.

Lonesome · Jan 14, 2008

Thank goodness there are no "Poop Bags". Like when we take our canines to a park and clean up after them.
Click to expand...

What do you call the disposable diapers left in parking lots, or roadside?

Truckerjo · Jan 14, 2008

Yes it is a nasty problem...
But common, now truckers are being blamed for cali's drug problems? this is a joke, needles are used by all types of motorist.. funny they dropped that problem in on truckers...

My advise...
Build more areas for truckers to stop... In cali truck stops are few and far between.. Rest areas? very difficult to find a spot to park in one if you find one (a rest area that is)... 50 million could build a few rest areas i would think...

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