Cracking Down on Repeat Tollway Violators

It’s amazing what some drivers will do to cheat Orange County’s tollways.

Take the Ferrari driver who got caught on camera sneaking through the 50-cent toll ramp at Newport Coast Drive.

It’s one of the wealthiest areas in Orange County, and the driver was in one of the most expensive cars on the road. Yet he had a towel hanging out of the trunk to obscure his license plate--all to avoid paying a 50-cent toll.

If you think that’s outrageous, consider the motorist in an Acura Integra who drove through a toll plaza recently. Surveillance cameras captured a photo of an arm sticking out of the trunk, obscuring the license plate: The driver had stashed an accomplice in the trunk to save a few bucks.

From 1999 through 2001, tollway cheaters at four of Orange County’s toll roads have racked up 4.6 million violations involving nonpayment of tolls, according to statistics from the nonprofit Transportation Corridor Agencies that operates all four of the toll roads.

Those violations cost the agency more than $7 million in lost tolls and fines.

Fed up, tollway officials have joined forces with the California Highway Patrol to crack down on cheaters.

They are focusing on habitual abusers. The worst make their way onto a “hot list” that includes a few individuals with so many violations and nonpayment fines that they each now owe close to $80,000.

Failure to pay tolls, which range from 25 cents to several dollars depending on the road and distance traveled, carries a $25 fine per violation. When a car is identified bypassing the tollgate, a notice is sent to the vehicle’s registered owner. If the notice is ignored, the fine goes up to $50, said TCA spokeswoman Clare Climaco.

Tracking down these scofflaws and forcing them to pay is a daunting challenge. One Riverside woman owes more than $58,000 in fines and toll charges, according to Climaco. “We got a hold of her

Dealing with habitual offenders is tough because usually they are “in trouble financially to begin with. They are moving around a lot and have other debts to pay. We are the least of their worries,” Climaco said.

So far, the agency has filed a handful of civil suits against the most egregious violators, and although it has threatened to sue the Riverside woman, Climaco said the TCA hopes it can negotiate a settlement.

But that may be wishful thinking. Climaco said the woman has changed her name repeatedly to evade paying and continues to sneak free rides on the tollways.

That puts her in the sights of scofflaw hunters such as CHP motorcycle officer Brian Habegger, one of many officers who patrol the toll plazas.

“If I can’t see a FasTrak transponder in their window and they don’t have a license plate, I stop them,” Habegger said. His catches include a couple of drivers on the TCA’s “hot list.”

A transponder is a device, usually mounted on the lower edge of a vehicle’s windshield, that sends an identification code via radio signal to a receiver in the toll booth. Drivers with transponders have their tolls deducted from a prepaid account and are able to pass the toll booths without slowing.

But some motorists hide their transponder so it won’t be detected and they won’t be charged.

If a car goes through a toll plaza without a working transponder and the driver fails to stop and pay, a camera photographs the vehicle. But if the driver has altered or removed the license plates, it makes it tough to identify the vehicle.

Of all the people he’s nailed for evading tolls, Habegger said he’s never heard anyone admit to wrongdoing. “They always play the innocent,” he said.

CHP officer John Olah, who patrols the 91 Freeway tollway where transponders are the only way to pay, said some motorists he’s stopped question why they should pay to drive on a road.

“They want to get into the political side of it, [but] I just stay out of it,” he said.

Californians aren’t used to toll roads, TCA’s Climaco said. They “disagree with the idea of paying for something they believe should be free.”

Officers have even seen drivers pull over to the side of the road before they reach a toll plaza, take off their plates and put them in the trunk. “After they pass through the [toll] ramp, they pull over to the side again and put them back on,” Climaco said.

Some drivers think “we’re the greedy toll road agency trying to gouge customers. In reality, we are a public, nonprofit agency that is simply there to repay [toll road construction] bond debt,” she said. “People don’t understand that the reason the tollways were built was because the state didn’t have money to build enough freeways.”

Since the agency and CHP began stepping up enforcement, the number of violations and lost tolls has begun to decline.

The amount of outstanding tolls for 2001 dropped to $1.7 million, from $2.85 million in 2000, according to TCA figures.

Last year, 1.3% of the 82.3 million vehicles that traveled the toll roads violated toll laws, down from 3% in 1999.

Climaco said toll road authorities expect the number of outstanding violations to drop even more. “We’re tracking violators down. Odds are we’re going to catch them.”

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Jeanne Wright responds in this column to automotive questions of general interest. Write to Your Wheels, Business Section, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012. E-mail: jeanrite@aol.com.