(photo: Daniel Kramer)
Explorer? Mustang? It's all the same to Harris County.
Posted on 12/09/2004 12:44:18 PM PST by weegee
As a freelance reviewer for the Houston Press, Mike Smith listens to a lot of music. Unfortunately for him, much of his listening is done while he's on hold for the Harris County Toll Road Authority's customer service phone line. Not only does the music selection get a thumbs-down (it's "sappy"), so does HCTRA.
For two years, Smith has been getting notices that he owes the authority money for illegally driving through the EZ Pass lane. As proof, the authority includes automated camera photos of a 2002 Ford Mustang speeding past the toll booth.
The only trouble is, Smith drives a Ford Explorer. Which doesn't look a whole lot like a Mustang.
And so he goes on hold and gets more demand letters in the mail. "What pisses me off is this kind of threatening legal language toward me when I've already had 20 to 30 of these dismissed for incorrect identification," he says.
HCTRA spokeswoman Patricia Freise is perplexed. "This has been a first for us," she says. There must be two vehicles registered in the DPS database with that same license plate, she says. "How in the world that happened, I have no clue."
It turns out there are not two such license plates in the DPS database, although there is a 2002 Mustang listed whose license plate is identical to Smith's except it includes an N where Smith's has an M.
The agency's computer system reads and enhances the license plate photos -- a HCTRA worker suggested to him that it could be misreading his number.
To which Smith replied: "It could be that this guy is out running the tollway and has taken a piece of black tape and made his N an M." (Said the HCTRA worker: "I never thought of that.")
A lot of people have suggested Smith simply get a new license plate. (A lot of sane people.) But that's not his style.
"I'm like, 'I'm not going to go and stand in line and pay the money to get a new license plate. You're crazy,' " he says.
Hey, it's just a thought. In the meantime, enjoy that on-hold music.
Explorer? Mustang? It's all the same to Harris County.
This reminds me of an old "ADAM-12" episode...
This is OLD news for NJ residents...
They "suggest" getting a new plate. Unless he can get the police to change the address associated with the OLD plate, he will still be mailed the citations.
No different than if he sold the car to someone who refused to get new plates.
EZ Pass should be abolished. Instead of abolishing the tolls in NJ they made it easier to pay. That's great logic if you're a DEVILCRAT State Senator, Assemblyman or Gayvenor but if you're a regular serf taxpayer it sucks.
I love these stories. (My neighbor says we live 50+ miles from the nearest traffic light.)
Perhaps they should actually look at the pictures, rather than relying on a computer that is having a poor track record. (Then again, that means a government worker would actually have to *do* something beyond his job description).
CAMERA-SHY It's time to implement videocam traffic enforcement
Then again, this is the part of the state that has started giving co-tags to students so that officials will know when/where they got on/off the bus. If we gave them GPS tracking chips, we would be able to find them when they were kidnapped.
...Or PA Turnpike Drivers.....
And what do you say?
Hmmm, now there's an idea!
I drive a horse and buggy, and don't have the time or inclination to go look.
Geeze, if they know when he comes thru and how often, maybe they could post a cruiser there to arrest the scofflaw the next time he shows up!
"It could be that this guy is out running the tollway and has taken a piece of black tape and made his N an M."
So what's stopping Smith from changing HIS 'M' to and 'N' and makinig life Hell for the Mustang owner?
There has to be a known failure rate for these systems. I'm guessing around 5%. The company that makes them and the cities that buy them need to report the failure rate so the public is informed.
PING! Like paying the salaries for the toll takers and other infrastructure that is a direct result of the toll booths themselves.
Can you point me to any other NJ articles about this...it's happening to a friend of mine. She doesn't have EZ-Pass & yet they suposedly photograph her going through EZ-Pass lanes...
The failure rate in NJ a while back was so unbelievably high that everyone I knew that had EZ-Pass had at least one of these summons. They were all dismissed by the State but then Gov. McGreedy (McGreedy for money and gay lovin') decided to fleece the EZ-Pass users by surcharging us with a $1 month service fee.
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