Drivers throwing urine-filled bottles on I-84 FIRST ON KTVB.COM 12:08 PM MDT on Thursday, August 7, 2008 KTVB.COM
Courtesy Oregon State PoliceOSP officers are seeing a big increase in urine bottles like this one left along I-84 outside Ontario
ONTARIO - Oregon State Police officers say people are filling up plastic bottles with urine and chucking them out the window, leaving them along the side of the road on Interstate 84.
Were not just talking one or two bottles but 200-300 human-waste filled containers along a 25-mile stretch of the freeway between Ontario and Huntington.
Police think long-haul truck drivers might be to blame.
Oregon State Police
A few of the urine bottles collected
"The main portion, about 100 bottles, was found on the eastbound side in a three mile stretch called Three Mile Hill' between milepost 356 and 359, OSP Sergeant Jason Reese said in a prepared statement. This area is prone to this problem because commercial trucks are driving at a slow speed and drivers can urinate into bottles and toss them out the window.
Like so many issues of late this problem is being blamed in part on high fuel prices. Reese said that an informal survey of drivers said the gas prices are causing drivers to travel slower, and save time and fuel at rest stops which could be leading to the urine-filled bottle boom.
Many of the drivers surveyed called the practice disgusting.
Oregon law actually mentions this type of problem, and anyone caught chucking a urine-filled bottle out the window may be arrested and hit with a $250 fine.