Illinois to send $7 mil in toll fines to Indiana motorists

If you’ve driven through an Illinois tollway, you might want to check your mailbox.

The Illinois Tollway announced it will send 116,000 Indiana drivers toll violations totaling $7 million in unpaid tolls and fines accumulated during the past two years.

The Tollway identified a problem with reading Indiana license plates, causing the delay in issuing toll violation notices.

When Indiana changed its license plate format in 2007, the Illinois Tollway worked with the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles to ensure Tollway surveillance equipment could properly identify the new Indiana license plates.

However, the Tollway video surveillance was unable to identify Indiana toll violators from July 2008 to June 2010.

“The Illinois Tollway has not had an issue of this magnitude with any other state,” said Illinois Tollway Press Secretary Joelle McGinnis in an e-mail.

A toll violation occurs when drivers do not come to a complete stop to pay their tolls. Toll fines are determined by the number of axles on a vehicle. If a driver does not come to a complete stop, he might pay an inaccurate toll.

The Tollway’s policy is to send toll violations to drivers whom have at least three violations during a period of two years. The drivers must pay their missed tolls plus a $20 fine for each toll.

There is no Illinois statute of limitations on collecting missed tolls and fines.
IU junior and Illinois resident Max Frank supports Illinois Tollway’s decision to fine Indiana residents.

“The fact that Indiana drivers are being charged for back tolls is legitimate only because these drivers knew all along that they were responsible for paying these tolls,” Frank said. “Illinois simply got around to doing what they should have done for the last two years.”

The Illinois Tollway will begin issuing delayed toll violations to Indiana drivers in
September.

The Customer Services Working Group approved a plan for an independent assessment of the toll violation identification system to decrease other possible license plate identification errors.   

“License plate issues are a challenge for all tolling agencies and are not limited to Illinois and Indiana,” McGinnis said.