" The $1,400 toll "
A JOLIET WOMAN SAYS THE TOLLWAY'S ERROR LED TO
A MASSIVE FINE AND THE SUSPENSION OF HER LICENSE PLATE.
Megan Hoover had her license plate suspended
this week and faced $1,400 in fines. But the Illinois State Toll Highway
Authority acknowledged Wednesday that it all may have been a mistake.
The tollway had her license plates
re-validated and put the fines on hold after The Herald News called about
Hoover's dilemma, which she had been grappling with for more than six months.
"They're bullying me into paying for something
I didn't do," Hoover said Wednesday morning. "I'm hitching rides to work. I
can't even go grocery shopping."
A few hours later a tollway spokesman said
Hoover could drive her car again. Also, authorities would look deeper into why
the tollway believed her license plates were on a car she never owned.
Hoover had been accused of driving through the
I-Pass lane 20 times without an I-Pass between November 2006 and July 2007.
However, the tollway had photographs of a
Toyota Highlander cruising the I-Pass lanes illegally. Hoover owns a Ford Focus.
She said she didn't know anyone with a Toyota
Highlander. But both vehicles apparently had the same numbered license plates.
Whether the plates themselves were identical
was hard to tell from the photocopied picture the tollway sent Hoover. She
couldn't even tell if the plate on the Toyota was from Illinois, although a
tollway employee assured her it was.
First, Hoover said, she was told everything
could be cleared up by sending in proof that the license plates were registered
to the Ford Focus. After she did that, "They said you could have put your plates
on another car," Hoover said.
When Hoover later noticed that the first
alleged violation actually occurred before she even obtained the license plates,
she called the tollway to point that out. "All that does is prove that the first
occurrence wasn't you," Hoover said she was told.
Hoover found it improbable that she somehow
would hook up with the same Toyota Highlander after obtaining license plates of
the same number and all for the sake of driving through I-Pass lanes.
But the tollway insisted she was at fault and
responsible for $16.20 worth of unpaid tolls. The tollway also fined her $400 at
a rate of $20 for each violation.
Hoover objected and eventually another $1,000
fine was added. On Monday, her license plates were suspended.
At one point Wednesday, a tollway manager
called and offered to "compromise" for $400. "I'm thinking of doing it," Hoover,
sounding weary, said at the time.
But the tollway looked into the matter again
after The Herald News called about Hoover's situation.
By early afternoon, spokesman Mike King said
the fines were on hold and Hoover's license plate was good again.
Hoover is hardly the first person to protest
her vehicle had been misidentified as a toll violator. Tollway phones have been
flooded at times in recent weeks because the company has been cleaning up a
backlog of alleged violations going back to 2006.
But Hoover's problem "is a unique situation,"
King said, because the same license plate appears to be on two different cars.
At times the tollway may misidentify a license
plate when the same number is on two different vehicles. But typically in those
cases, the same number is on two different types of plates. One may be for a car
and another for a truck.
In this case, the same number appears to be on
two automobile plates.
King said the tollway authority has consulted
with the Secretary of State's office, which issues license plates, and the
matter is being investigated.
"It's a secretary of state issue now," he
said.
The fines are on hold until the matter is
resolved. But at least Hoover can drive her car again.
Source: [ suburbanchicagonews ]
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