Columnist Susan Snyder: Watch your tailpipes, motorists

Tuesday, April 18, 2000 | 9:10 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Tuesdays and Sundays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or 259-4082.

Maybe the caller's 1989 Toyota Tercel puffs a little smoke.

Maybe it doesn't.

But Nevada's Department of Motor Vehicles isn't taking any chances. Someone called the agency's smog hotline and left the Tercel's tag number. The DMV sent its owner a warning letter. Two more, and they yank his registration.

"I've been tried and convicted by somebody I don't even know," the motorist said. "It could be so abused. The DMV hasn't even seen your car."

The 486-SMOG hotline has been around about seven years, said Kevin Malone, DMV spokesman. But it's getting renewed attention because of a billboard campaign Clark County's air quality officials started in December.

"The call volume is way, way up," Malone said.

The push came three months after federal officials scolded Clark County for failing to devise a plan for reducing carbon monoxide levels. The county submitted a new plan in January, but federal officials called it inadequate.

So while they conduct meetings to figure out we need tougher standards and decent alternative transportation, you can help. When you see a car fouling the air call the hotline. It's * SMOG on a cell phone (never mind that we need a hotline to report lousy drivers using cell phones).

Leave the offending car's tag number, the time, date and location in which you spotted it -- everything except your name -- and hang up.

In a few days the owner of said stinkmobile receives a "courtesy letter" that basically says the DMV is onto his cloudy gig. If the car is reported two more times in the following 90 days, the owner has to get a smog check at the DMV's laboratory on Sahara Avenue, Malone said.

If the car owner fails to show up for the test within 30 days, the registration is canceled. If the car fails the test and the owner doesn't have it fixed within 30 days, the registration is canceled.

So if your neighbor turns you in three times because your dog keeps pooping in his pansies, you have to get your car checked.

And you probably should buy a leash.

The system's multiple warnings are designed to curb revenge reportings, said Greg Cole, supervising emissions control officer for the DMV emissions lab.

He figures few if any of last year's 4,926 reports were fakes. The program has logged 3,074 reports so far this year, and 502 motorists have been asked to have their cars tested. "It's doing what it's supposed to do," Cole said.

And it's doing it only to offending vehicles that weigh 8,500 pounds or less.

"You've seen those big, obnoxious diesel trucks that people have? Well, those are about in the 8,500-range," Malone said. "There aren't any (emissions) standards for them."

Nope. They get to cruise across the valley with chunks of their loads falling off the back and roll 50 mph along residential streets belching out as much black nasty as they please.

But you people driving paid-off passenger cars better watch your tailpipes.

"There's no due process," the angered motorist said. "You could use this against your neighbor. You could use it against anybody."