Article from: www.thenewspaper.com/news/19/1963.asp

9/11/2007

Virginia: Toll Road Accuses 8000 Innocent Motorists of Cheating
Virginia Department of Transportation to refund $105,000 in camera tickets wrongly issued to toll road users.

Innocent motorists driving on the Dulles Toll Road and Powhite Parkway Extension in Virginia have been accused of skipping out on tolls. The system's ticket cameras photographed 8000 motorists either for no reason, or because E-ZPass sensors failed to record payment properly. The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) admitted that it mailed $200,000 worth of citations for violations that never happened.

"We conducted an internal review of our E-Z Pass system and found that it was not properly filtering out suspect violations," VDOT Communications Project Manager Shannon Marshall told WTOP radio.

As a result of the discovery, some $105,000 that had already been collected will be refunded. The agency has already mailed notices to those affected and has told WTOP that stricter controls will be used in the ticketing process. Motorists around the country have found similar errors in electronic transponders. In some cases, individual drivers have seen bills that can exceed $10,000 due to errors in their toll road account.

Source: E-Z Pass Glitch Falsely Tickets Thousands (WTOP Radio (DC), 9/11/2007)

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