After 24 hours of online backlash, the driver fined hundreds of dollars for tossing a cigarette butt out of his truck window in Langford is telling his side of the story.
The firestorm of controversy began Thursday, when West Shore RCMP tweeted a photo of a $575 ticket handed to a driver who they say flicked his cigarette butt into the road.
Media spokesman Const. Alex Berube, who pulled the man over, said the driver called the fine “insane” even though his actions were illegal.
Berube said he informed the motorist that B.C. was under a state of emergency due to ongoing wildfires ravaging the province’s Interior, but he didn’t seem to get the message.
“It was apparent that he appeared to be oblivious to the seriousness of the situation that we’re encountering in British Columbia,” he said.
The tweet quickly went viral on social media with the public mostly applauding Berube’s actions and chastising the driver.
But that driver, Tony Reaume, has since come forward to claim he had already put out the cigarette by pinching it before he tossed it.
“He told me the price of the ticket and I said ‘Are you insane?’ That cigarette butt was out. It wasn’t lit,” he told CTV News Friday. “Okay, I littered, I was expecting a ticket for littering. I wasn’t expecting a ticket for this Wildfire Act.”
Reaume also argued that there’s no plant life in the area of Veterans Memorial Parkway near Goldstream Avenue, where he tossed the butt, “for at least a full football field.”
When he woke up on Friday morning, he said he was disheartened to find out the incident had gone viral without his side of the story, and feels like he’s been convicted without a fair trial.
“That’s my biggest concern right now,” he said. “They’re passing judgment on the information that they have. Not all the information, just the information that they have.”
Berube disputes the man’s account that the butt was completely put out when he tossed it.
“He threw a cigarette butt out of the window,” he said. “The fact that he said he may have put the cigarette out completely, that’s obviously his words, but we all know that a cigarette butt cannot be extinguished if it’s not done properly.”
Reaume admitted he was wrong for littering, but plans to fight the Wildfire Act ticket in court.
Berube said if he wants to take it to court, he’s happy to see him there.
B.C. has remained under a provincial state of emergency since July 7, and on Friday it was extended a fourth time until Sept. 15.
There have been 1,154 wildfires sparked since April 1, destroying more than 10,000 square kilometres of land, according to the BC Wildfire Service.
Anyone who spots a wildfire starting or someone throwing cigarette butts is asked to report it to the BC Wildfire Service at 1-800-663-5555 or *5555 from a cell phone.
