Judge tosses thousands of citations, fumes at toll injustice

[buckthesystem]

If only all government employees would use this common sense!

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http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/...0,4246150.story

Judge tosses thousands of citations, fumes at toll 'injustice'

Rene Stutzman

Sentinel Staff Writer

April 23, 2008

SANFORD

An irate judge wiped the books Tuesday of several thousand citations handed out to drivers accused of skipping tolls because their dashboard transponders malfunctioned.

Circuit Judge John Galluzzo accused the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority and Florida Turnpike Authority of making traffic offenders out of innocent E-Pass and SunPass customers whose tolls fail to record as they pass through the electronic plazas.

He took the unprecedented step of barring both agencies from issuing toll citations in Seminole and Brevard counties to drivers who have prepaid or credit-card accounts.

"In this technology age, it is hard to believe it would take more than a few computer keystrokes to rectify the problem of matching alleged violators to account holder's vehicles," Galluzzo wrote.

In a blistering opinion, he said the agencies had subjected customers to a needless "bureaucratic morass," one that left an Osceola County firefighter, through no fault of his own, with a suspended drivers license.

Christopher M. Baird, 34, who lives in Seminole County near Winter Park, had an E-Pass transponder from the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority and cash in his account to pay tolls.

But when the battery of the transponder in his wife's SUV failed last year, he was slapped with 16 citations -- failure to pay tolls -- in Seminole by the Florida Department of Transportation.

Because the family moved, notice of the citations went to the wrong address, and the state suspended Baird's drivers license. He learned about that only in late December, when he tried to renew his vehicle tags and couldn't.

Although he considered it unfair, Baird paid about $3,000 in fines in January and then went to court in Sanford, trying to straighten out his driving record. His employer threatened to fire him at one point because he lost his license.

Galluzzo's decision Tuesday threw out all 16 of Baird's citations in Seminole, ordered the government to refund his money and cleared the firefighter's driving record in Seminole.

"It would be a manifest injustice to the Appellant [baird] to subject him to the penalties that have been imposed," the judge wrote.

"I was very, very happy," Baird said Tuesday. "It's just not only for me. . . . It's an epidemic that's happening. It's going to help hundreds of people that are in the same boat."

Baird had an E-Pass from the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority, which operates toll roads only in Orange County. But the device also is recognized by the Florida Turnpike Authority, which operates the toll plazas on State Road 417 in Seminole where Baird was cited for violations.

The turnpike authority, part of Florida's DOT, was the agency that issued the citations Galluzzo threw out Tuesday. SunPass was mentioned in the ruling because that is the transponder device issued by the agency.

Christa Deason, a spokeswoman for the turnpike authority, said her agency would study Galluzzo's decision. She said once the problem came to light, her agency tried to help clear Baird's record.

It was not clear late Tuesday how many drivers would be affected, but Galluzzo ordered the clerks of court in Seminole and Brevard to stop accepting traffic citations from those two toll-road agencies unless they include affidavits swearing the offender has no money in an existing account.

Seminole Clerk of Courts Maryanne Morse estimated Tuesday that the ruling would affect 7,000 to 8,000 tickets pending in her county.

She said she would mail back every unpaid citation her office had received from those toll-road agencies, although some may involve people not covered by Galluzzo's ruling -- drivers without transponders. Morse said she hoped her employees will have a computer program in place in the next day or two to sort out the situation.

According to numbers provided by Deason, the turnpike authority records about 24,000 transponder errors statewide every month -- an error rate of 0.04 percent.

Lindsay Hodges, a spokeswoman for the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority, said her agency's transponder failure rate is 0.03 percent. That totals about 180 errors a month.

In cases such as Baird's, Galluzzo wrote -- when a customer's money is already in the agency's possession -- failing to pay a toll is no crime. It's a contractual dispute, and toll-road agencies should not have the authority to issue a ticket, he wrote.

Hodges, with the Orlando-Orange County toll agency, said that because her agency did not operate toll booths in Seminole or Brevard counties, the ruling would not affect it.

Sarah Lundy and Dan Tracy of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

[His_Own]

Thanks for posting! There is hope!

[kat8585]

I completely agree with the judges decision. It is hardly the fault of those traveling the toll road if the devise they are using malfunctions. Even though it is not relevant to what happened, the Florida Turnpike is one of the most over priced toll roads in the nation, and I doubt that the revenue they lost in those cases harmed them all that much.

The tolls here in Texas have skyrocketed in the last few years.

[Guest]

I completely agree with the judges decision. It is hardly the fault of those traveling the toll road if the devise they are using malfunctions. Even though it is not relevant to what happened, the Florida Turnpike is one of the most over priced toll roads in the nation, and I doubt that the revenue they lost in those cases harmed them all that much.

Exactly!

Oh, wow.

A judge who did something that makes SENSE!