Singapore transportation officials blamed an embarrassing string bogus toll road errors on cash cards heated by the tropical sun. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced yesterday the conclusion of an investigation that passed the blame to the makers of NETS CashCards. Because the in-car toll transaction units (IUs) did not properly register transactions on hot days, around 300 motorists a month were falsely accused cheating on the country's toll highways.

"These NETS CashCards have been removed from the system through integrated testing of IUs/NETS CashCards at the LTA Authorised Inspection Centres," the LTA said in a statement.

Singapore authorities began investigating the toll road problems in May. All motorists were asked to take their toll road transponders to testing stations for regular inspection. So far, about 2900 bad cash cards have been replaced with newer generation models. With 4.5 million cash cards in use, many more may continue to cause errors.

"LTA and NETS are committed to make Electronic Road Pricing transactions as efficient as possible and will continue to offer motorists a one-stop center for integrated testing of their NETS CashCards/ IUs," the LTA statement concluded.