trucker bomb

n. a roadside bottle (or other small container) filled with urine. Also torpedo. Subjects: English, Automobiles & Transportation

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Citations: 2003 John DeWeese Olympian (Olympia, Wash.) (Apr. 23) “Under The Dome” p. B2: Last year, one highway cleaning crew with the Department of Ecology found 2,600 bottles filled with urine and 18 dirty needles. The so-called “trucker bombs” are on the increase as more truck drivers choose to relieve themselves without stopping at rest areas. 2005 Lynn Bartels Rocky Mountain News (Denver, Colo.) (Jan. 19) “Roadside Waste Measure Advances” p. 15A: Plastic bottles filled with urine are often called “torpedoes.”…“We hit them. They explode. The operator ends up wearing this stuff.” 2005 Thane Burnett Toronto Sun (Can.) (June 8) “Whiz Through Ontario” p. 32: The I-80 in Nevada has become known as the “pee bottle corridor.” In North Dakota, one official estimates road crews are covered in a golden shower 20 to 40 times a year by the containers—also dubbed “torpedoes”—as they explode in the hot sun. And as soon as a mower hits one, things also hit the fan.…Trucker bombs seem as common as shredded tires along our roads. 2005 Amanda Garrett Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio) (June 12) “Truckers don’t stop to go, litter watchers say” p. A1: Road crews call the bottles “trucker bombs”—trucker since that’s the group most often blamed for dumping them and bomb because they explode when a mower hits them, often sending a putrid shower of warm urine into the air and onto whoever is cutting the grass. 2005 Aaron Wiens @ Northern Illinois University Northern Star (DeKalb, Illinois) (Aug. 26) “Truckers ‘bomb away’”: What should you do if you are driving on the highway and you really need to release some excess fluids? If you are one of many truckers, you grab the nearest jug. And then if you are a rude trucker, you toss it out the window. The result is so-called “trucker bombs” that litter almost every highway throughout the nation.

Posted 5 Oct 05 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Reader comments:

I am a trucker and it is a sick thing that a few make us all suffer.

by steve 04 Feb 06, 0858 GMT

A web site called WWW.TRUCKER-P.COM/TRUCKER .HTM addresses the problem of truckers urinating directly into gallon plastic bottles while driving at speed on our highways and then improperly disposing of the bottles at rest stops or just tossing them out of truck widows.

Airline pilots use these systems as they have to sit in their seats for hours without the opportunity to go to the toilet. They don’t have the choice of waiting for a upcoming rest stop.

The whole TRUCKER-P concept is based on hospital proven devices: male condom catheters, lengths of tubing , connectors and urine holding bags of various sizes.

The danger for the truck driver peeing in a plastic bottle, after having pulled his pants down to reach his penis and stuff it in the bottle opening, while running down the road at 60 MPH, is eliminated. Using TRUCKER-P equipment, the truck driver would attach a male condom catheter before starting out so this is already in place when he wants to urinate. The catheter is attached to a latex tube that runs down into a large holding bag on the floor. The whole thing is convenient, easy and minimizes a potentially dangerous situation.

As the holding bag costs about $10.00, the driver will not be pitching the bag, as he would an old used gallon milk bottle, out the truck window. One bit of magic here would be for the trucking companies to get involved before the government passes some laws no one really wants. I think this whole problem could be solved by the trucking companies who have the power to change the drivers habits.

by TRUCKER-P 29 Jul 06, 1006 GMT

The problem is in the HOS rules. Truckers only have 14 hours to complete an 11 hour drive day. It can take thirty minutes or more to pull off the interstate and pee. That time is lost, along with the income generated by rolling those wheels. Truckers are not paid on a clock and there is no minimum wage or overtime pay. If the trucks not rolling, the trucker is losing money.

by Aubrey Collins 14 May 07, 0907 GMT