Drivers film defiant ciggy flickers amid fire ban
Angry motorists have taken to filming smokers as they flick lit cigarettes out car windows amid total fire bans, as the RFS reports a spike in people flouting litter laws with cigarette butts.
NSW
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Motorists are being caught on camera illegally throwing smouldering cigarette butts out of car windows, despite a bushfire emergency and total fire bans.
As the state gears up for another horror day of fires, the NSW Rural Fire Service said there had been a spike in people flouting litter laws with cigarette butts.
In the past year, more than 1600 people have been reported for cigarette butt litter despite authorities doubling the fine from $660 to $1320.
The number of people fined in October was almost double the previous year.
A number of blazes in the past few weeks including two in Frenchs Forest and Warriewood are believed to have started as a result of irresponsibly discarded cigarette butts.
Six lives and more than 400 homes have been lost in what’s declared as the worst bushfire season in more than 25 years, but some Australians are still not heeding the message.
Several Sydney drivers have uploaded footage of motorists flicking cigarettes out car windows, including one incident posted on YouTube on November 16.
The man, who was driving a dark grey ute, was filmed erupting in rage after being caught on camera on Forest Rd Hurstville.
Another driver was filmed a dropping a lit cigarette on the M1 in Taren Point during a total fire ban last month while a Lexus was caught on camera in Somersby littering a cigarette butt.
NSW Police and the Rural Fire Service are now urging people to dob in tossers.
Acting Superintendent of NSW Fire and Rescue, Rob Jansen, said fires caused by smouldering cigarette butts were “a common occurrence” in both metro and regional areas.
“A cigarette butt discarded from a moving vehicle, even if it lands on the bitumen road surface, will be blown along by wind, or wind from moving vehicles, rolling to grass on the side of the road. This will quickly develop into a large grass or bush fire with dire consequences.”
Police are urging anyone to keep a watchful eye for people doing the wrong thing.
Reports of cigarette butt litterers can be made here.
A total of 100 bush and grass fires were burning across NSW on Thursday morning with 44 uncontained and about 1700 firefighters in the field.