Florida

FHP Cracking Down on Toll Violators

The Florida Highway Patrol says the Labor Day weekend is costing taxpayers millions as truck drivers and other motorists try to avoid paying at toll-by-plate plazas, often concealing plates so they can't be read.

FHP officials say the unpaid bills for tolls is rising and motorists avoiding the payments is a growing problem.

"We have dump trucks that travel through the Turnpike through the toll gantry with obscure tag in the front and obscure tag in the rear," Lt. Gene Phillipson said.

Lt. Phillipson is making it his mission to put a dent in the numbers of trucks on the road with license plates the camera readers at the toll plazas can't make out.

"These vehicles are violating the Sunpass toll. We have bill-by-plate but unfortunately if you can't read the tag you cannot bill the violators. So we are doing traffic enforcement to avoid this problem," he said.

One truck driver stopped Friday was allowed to clean up his plate by the troopers instead of getting a $129 ticket. In Spanish, he said he didn't try to hide the numbers intentionally and they became hidden just from the time he had been on the road.

But Phillipson said that's not the case as some drivers clearly go the extra mile in hiding the numbers.

"If someone obscured their tag by one number, it could reflect on someone else's vehicle and and you'll be billed," he said.

Some drivers are also disconnecting their Sunpass accounts, Phillipson said. The state estimates more than $36 million in losses.

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