As the Midwest continues to face severe droughts thanks to unrelenting heat and infrequent precipitation, the state of Indiana has promised to step up its enforcement of its ban on littering roadways with cigarette butts.
Littering on Indiana's highways, especially with cigarette or cigar butts or any other incendiary, has always been a ticketable offense, according to WKRC Cincinnati. But highway patrol is asking troopers to step up enforcement, including writing tickets with fines that run up to $10,000 for offenses that cause fires.
Indiana State Police Capt. David Bursten told WBEZ that grassy medians along Indiana's highways are especially susceptible to brush fires during these dry conditions. He says no reported fires have been traced back to motorists' cigarette butts, but after 14 more counties in the state were named "disaster areas" this week due to the drought, it's important to minimize any additional risk.
"In urban areas, homes align that interstate, and then in the rural areas you have farmers with their crops and their animals there, so ... it could impact somebody's home and livelihood," Sgt. Ann Wojas of the Indiana State Police told ABC Chicago.
State troopers say they've written about 200 tickets so far this year, according to CBS Chicago. In 2011, 368 tickets were issued, compared to more than 600 annually during the two previous years.
Illinois is launching a similar push to curb the harmful habit. Lake County sheriff's police Chief Wayne Hunter told the Chicago Tribune he's enacting a "zero tolerance" stance on cigarettes thrown from car windows as well, although Illinois' Litter Control Act only permits fines of up to $1,500 per incident.
A lit cigarette was blamed for a March brush fire in Cook County that destroyed ten acres of grass and marshland in Deer Grove Forest Preserve.