Dear silver RAV4 driver who crossed my path this morning,
I’ve filled in a form on the EPA web site. You should be hearing from them soon.
I recommend you talk to your passenger about a contribution for the fine you’ll be getting.
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Dear driver
26 replies on “Dear driver”
Good on you Daniel! I’m so sick of darlo haied male fat passenger seats wearing sunglaxes dropping cit cigiaette hutt’s on the road. Plus I think I’ve seen that suliver RAV 4 east baird on Dandenong Road before!
Sorry….. cheap shot!
heh. Yes, I know, I have pretty crap handwriting!
Many is the time I have felt like dobbing when I am out and about, but isn’t it a bit unAustralian? Unless they have cut hard in front you. To my regret, I did not challenge someone who threw something umpteen times the size of cigarette butt out her window, a coke can.
Excellent, Daniel!
If it’s unAustralian, then let’s not be Australians.
Well done Daniel. I’ve done that before (filled in the form, not dropped a cit cigiaette hutt out the window). Hope they throw the book at them – we are approaching bushfire season after all.
What pigs!
Have done this myself in the past. A couple weeks ago it was a food wrapper as they drove out of Maccas. Well done to you I say!
I don’t believe it’s un-Australian to want our roads and environment clean and tidy, and what you’ve done is hopefully sent a wake up call to a person who thinks it’s ok to litter.
I occasionally report to EPA on smokey vehicle exhausts – usually seem to be diesel powered and quite often small commercial vans belonging to delivery firms. Your scanned note reminded me of my own.
Good on you Daniel!!
They deserve it. There are so many people you see doing this and various other illegal actions especially on the roads…and it’s about time that someone reports them!
I must say that saying something is “un-Australian” really gets my goat. What they usually mean to say is that it is rude and inconsiderate of their fellow humans. Too many Australians are rude and inconsiderate to say that it is un-Australian to be so.
Good work, Daniel. You are the model citizen (I’m the model…though).
Well done Daniel. I too am a card carrying EPA reporter! When I used to drive to work in Abbotsford I was at my best, but working from home has curtailed my reporting habits somewhat!
I remember in my first year the EPA sent a Merry Xmas email with some stats on the number of reports made that year. Ho Ho Ho!
Also for those who don’t know, if you make a report you must be willing to back it up on the stand if necessary. Often the offender will say “prove it”, and the EPA call you asking if you will testify if it comes to that – so it’s best to keep your chicken scratchings (umm, notes!). Once the EPA respond to the offender that there is a witness willing to give evidence, they normally back down and pay. I’ve never needed to go to court, but have been willing :)
I once, luckily or unluckily (depending on how you view it) spotted the same offender twice in one journey. It was their lucky day!
I saw a lady tos a lit butt from her car window the other day on Chapel St. I resisted the urge to toss it back into the car. Any scolding I might do would likely be met with anti American comments when my accent is heard.
Does reporting actually work? What if the other driver just flat-out denies that he threw a butt out?
Perhaps all those that are so anxious to dob in a fellow citizen should have a good look at the Nazi era.They were the real experts.
Unaustralian? Anxious to dob? What utter crap!
Someone without the intelligence to consider the lives and property they put at risk through such a careless and slovenly action deserves a lot more than to be fined. Let them be held accountable for their actions and if they don’t like it, let them learn to activate their brains occassionally.
My good Australian fellow citizens are not worthless assholes.
regarding throwing rubbish back in the window… a friend of mine threw a drink can back in the window (of a Rav 4 I might add) and was beaten up with a club lock for his troubles…
It’s not worth aggravating the offender – much like responding to road rage – you are not going to educate the person on the road. Best leaving the education to the authorities.
I’m confused with what the term ‘unAustralian’ means in this context (or any context for that matter). Surely it’s best to just be a good person and report the litterers – irrespective of nationality or sovereign status.
Regardless of whether you should dob, people tend not to like it when you do. I wouldn’t have published this post, as the guy who gets the fine can now see who dobbed him in.
Un-Australian? Nazi? Puh-lease. People who drop lit cigarette butts out of windows, especially approaching bush-fire season during a drought (an un-Australian act if ever I heard of one), deserve the book thrown at them.
Alan, if he refuses to pay, it goes to court. I get called as a witness, and I’ll tell the court what I saw, and show them the note I made of it a few minutes later. Then the justice system decides who is right.
Markk, until Google indexes handwriting within pictures, the chances of the person involved finding the post are minimal. Then again, if he wants to find out, he can take it to court.
(By the way, I’ve probably reported a dozen or two of these over the years. I’ve never heard anything more about them, and certainly never had to go to court.)
It is self evident that littering is anti social,nobody would argue otherwise,but it is the whole culture of “dobbing” I take exception to.It seems to bring out the worst in people.You state yourself Daniel,that you have reported a “dozen or two over the years” does this help you sleep better at night knowing how much trouble you have caused others.Do you spend all your time looking for for things you can report.As for your weak comment about “bushfires” How many have you seen sarted in the CBD?
If I’ve caused deliberate litterbugs some trouble/cost (and hopefully they’ve learnt their lesson) then I’m very happy, thanks.
CBD? This wasn’t the CBD. This was Dandenong Road, close to the central median which is full of trees and dried-out grass.
I guess everybody’s got different views on what deserves reporting and what doesn’t. But it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to regular readers here that I will often speak up when I see injustice and think it’ll make a difference.
Good on you, Daniel. On the topic of reporting morons on the road, does anyone know how or to whom I can report drivers who fail to stop for a stationary tram? I catch trams at least 12-15 times per week, and in an average week I’d estimate 4 or 5 drivers fail to stop as I’m stepping off the tram. Often they not only fail to stop, they actually speed up. Fortunately I look carefully before stepping on to the road, but it’s still aggravating, not to mention dangerous.
Recently after one very near miss, I wrote down the car’s rego number and phoned my local police station. They weren’t interested and said I should phone Crimestoppers. So I did, but Crimestoppers weren’t much interested either and said they only took reports about very specific “hooning” behaviour, and failing to stop for a tram doesn’t fall into that category. So if the local police don’t want to know, and nor do Crimestoppers, how on earth can we report it? (I’ve found that tram drivers aren’t much interested either, BTW, beyond just dinging their bell and yelling the occasional profanity at the car drivers.)
Nice work Daniel.
Keep this up and you might have to change your web address to danielbowenoam.com
http://www.theorderofaustralia.asn.au/
Yay for you! I tried to fill in the form once, but for some reason found it too hard (not sure if it was the form or me or the lack of jotting down information beyond the rego no of the truck poluting our skies…) I’m inspired to try again! I’ll follow up on the times I want to dob in a hoon too…
I always was a bit of a dibber-dobber, I reckon!