Fined

As you may recall, over the Easter holiday weekend, I returned the lad to school and, on my way home, encountered an uninhabited New York state EZ Pass toll booth that was supposed to accept cash—leaving me no alternative but to drive through it without paying my toll. On Saturday an official looking envelope from Massachusetts arrived in my mailbox, informing me that I’d committed an Unauthorized Use of the ETC System. I don’t know for certain, but I assume that ETC stands for Electronic Toll Collection for the greater northeastern system. Or something like that. In any case, I knew it was coming, I just didn’t know how high the ding would be. I guess they don’t take this sort of offense lightly since they’re soaking me $50 with the threat of even greater fees and non-renewal of my license and registration if I don’t pay right away.

They do give me the opportunity to appeal, which, of course, I will do. For all the good it does me. They certainly have me dead to rights in terms of being there. The form they sent has a photograph of my car and license plate sitting at the toll booth along with the time stamp. It’s definitely me. Naturally, what the photograph doesn’t show is an empty toll collector’s booth or the sign that says Cash Accepted.

I aim to write a pleasant appeal with the offer to pay the toll. I don’t think it’s right to be fined for something that I wasn’t responsible for. If they can’t man their cash toll booths in the hours after midnight, that shouldn’t be my problem. Remains to be seen whether they’ll agree with me. If they do, they’ll still soak me an additional $5 for administrative fees. The thought occurs that they’d save themselves the paperwork handling and the necessity for any fees if their toll booth personnel were where they were supposed to be.

Under the circumstances, this doesn’t provide me with positive reinforcement to sign up with the EZ Pass system. The form they sent me is very heavy on the threats and authoritarian language and the photo of my car is kind of creepy. It’s unsettling all the way around.