http://indianaeconomicdigest.com/main.asp?...ArticleID=56447
QUOTE
10/4/2010 6:03:00 PM
Indiana drivers fighting mad over Illinois Tollway fines
Keith Benman, Times of Northwest Indiana
Jerome Koutny, of Lake Village, likes rural Newton County and his red 1997 GMC Sonoma pickup.
He didn't like the bill for $183.60 the Illinois Tollway recently sent him for back tolls and accumulated fines.
He couldn't understand why the Illinois Tollway would be chasing him down, especially as he never takes the Tollway. In fact, the fuel pump was out and the bed was off his truck on some of the dates cited.
"It was just sitting in the yard," he said. "Even now, the brakes aren't so good."
It turns out Koutny was telling God's honest truth.
Koutny is one of 116,000 Indiana motorists now receiving notices of violations from the Illinois Tollway as it seeks to clear up a two-year backlog of $7.4 million in back tolls and fines. However, the effort to clean up one error appears to be spawning new ones.
"As we mentioned, the system is not perfect and accurate plate identification is an industry-wide issue," Illinois Tollway spokeswoman Joelle McGinnis said in an e-mail to The Times after an inquiry about Koutny's bill. "There are instances when notices are sent to the wrong driver."
The problems all stem from mid-2008, when the Illinois Tollway found it could not accurately match Hoosier motorists' license plates to their vehicles and I-PASS accounts. For the next two years, no fines went out to Indiana residents for alleged violations, as the violation system for them remained turned off.
The problem was corrected in July, according to the Tollway. The authority's board of directors in August approved going after the money. Adding to anxiety is the scary language in the violation notices that warns of possible suspensions of vehicle registrations and driver's licenses.
Hammond resident Sergio Rosado reports receiving a violation notice for a car he doesn't take on the Tollway. Steven Clemens, of Valparaiso, received one for a car he said he didn't even own yet. Hoosier motorists getting nailed with violation notices report waits as long as two hours to get a real person on the phone at the I-PASS customer service center.
And Indiana drivers with I-PASS accounts still are none too happy about the original error that led to the whole mess. They are demanding to know why they are not getting the standard 50 percent discount for I-PASS users on the back tolls. That's the reason they bought I-PASS in the first place.
"I have no problem with paying the tolls they are owed," said Tammy Rauch, of Schererville, who recently was hit with a $9,825.90 violation bill. "But we don't want to pay double. We kept our end of the deal on I-PASS and they should keep theirs."
They say waiving the fines, as the Tollway Authority is doing, is no big deal, as it's not like they were knowingly cruising the tollway for free. McGinnis said charging full tolls for anything classified a violation is standard Illinois Tollway policy.
McGinnis is attributing many of the large violation bills to people not properly mounting transponders in their cars, leading to a high number of missed reads when cars pass beneath open tolling sensors. But a number of people receiving large violation bills, including Rauch, say they properly affixed the transponders.
Rauch said if she and her husband had received a violation notice at any time during that two-year period, they would have checked their transponder to see if there was a problem. It happened once before in 2004. And they weren't riding free all the time; I-PASS still was making regular $40 deductions from their account.
So far the Illinois Tollway has sent two violation notices for two of the family's cars. The first totaled just more than $2,000.
The fines were waived on that one and they promptly paid the tolls, without the usual 50 percent I-PASS discount. It seemed worth it to avoid seeing the fines increase from $20 to $50 per violation.
Then last week the second violation notice came for $9,825.90. They expect the fines to be waived, but they still will be charged $345.90 for tolls at the nondiscounted cash rate.
Now the Rauchs are waiting for the violation notice for their third car. It particularly hurts because Tammy has been working extra as a substitute school bus driver to save money for her girls' travel softball weekend.
"And now it's all going for tolls," she said.
Indiana drivers fighting mad over Illinois Tollway fines
Keith Benman, Times of Northwest Indiana
Jerome Koutny, of Lake Village, likes rural Newton County and his red 1997 GMC Sonoma pickup.
He didn't like the bill for $183.60 the Illinois Tollway recently sent him for back tolls and accumulated fines.
He couldn't understand why the Illinois Tollway would be chasing him down, especially as he never takes the Tollway. In fact, the fuel pump was out and the bed was off his truck on some of the dates cited.
"It was just sitting in the yard," he said. "Even now, the brakes aren't so good."
It turns out Koutny was telling God's honest truth.
Koutny is one of 116,000 Indiana motorists now receiving notices of violations from the Illinois Tollway as it seeks to clear up a two-year backlog of $7.4 million in back tolls and fines. However, the effort to clean up one error appears to be spawning new ones.
"As we mentioned, the system is not perfect and accurate plate identification is an industry-wide issue," Illinois Tollway spokeswoman Joelle McGinnis said in an e-mail to The Times after an inquiry about Koutny's bill. "There are instances when notices are sent to the wrong driver."
The problems all stem from mid-2008, when the Illinois Tollway found it could not accurately match Hoosier motorists' license plates to their vehicles and I-PASS accounts. For the next two years, no fines went out to Indiana residents for alleged violations, as the violation system for them remained turned off.
The problem was corrected in July, according to the Tollway. The authority's board of directors in August approved going after the money. Adding to anxiety is the scary language in the violation notices that warns of possible suspensions of vehicle registrations and driver's licenses.
Hammond resident Sergio Rosado reports receiving a violation notice for a car he doesn't take on the Tollway. Steven Clemens, of Valparaiso, received one for a car he said he didn't even own yet. Hoosier motorists getting nailed with violation notices report waits as long as two hours to get a real person on the phone at the I-PASS customer service center.
And Indiana drivers with I-PASS accounts still are none too happy about the original error that led to the whole mess. They are demanding to know why they are not getting the standard 50 percent discount for I-PASS users on the back tolls. That's the reason they bought I-PASS in the first place.
"I have no problem with paying the tolls they are owed," said Tammy Rauch, of Schererville, who recently was hit with a $9,825.90 violation bill. "But we don't want to pay double. We kept our end of the deal on I-PASS and they should keep theirs."
They say waiving the fines, as the Tollway Authority is doing, is no big deal, as it's not like they were knowingly cruising the tollway for free. McGinnis said charging full tolls for anything classified a violation is standard Illinois Tollway policy.
McGinnis is attributing many of the large violation bills to people not properly mounting transponders in their cars, leading to a high number of missed reads when cars pass beneath open tolling sensors. But a number of people receiving large violation bills, including Rauch, say they properly affixed the transponders.
Rauch said if she and her husband had received a violation notice at any time during that two-year period, they would have checked their transponder to see if there was a problem. It happened once before in 2004. And they weren't riding free all the time; I-PASS still was making regular $40 deductions from their account.
So far the Illinois Tollway has sent two violation notices for two of the family's cars. The first totaled just more than $2,000.
The fines were waived on that one and they promptly paid the tolls, without the usual 50 percent I-PASS discount. It seemed worth it to avoid seeing the fines increase from $20 to $50 per violation.
Then last week the second violation notice came for $9,825.90. They expect the fines to be waived, but they still will be charged $345.90 for tolls at the nondiscounted cash rate.
Now the Rauchs are waiting for the violation notice for their third car. It particularly hurts because Tammy has been working extra as a substitute school bus driver to save money for her girls' travel softball weekend.
"And now it's all going for tolls," she said.
