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Oak Forest man doesn't drive; billed $3,100 for tolls
Michael Healy has a bum hip, lung cancer and a failing colon.
But it was the bill for $3,106.60 he received from the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority that almost felled him for good.
(Guy Tridgell/SouthtownStar)
A class-action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of drivers sent violation notices accusing them of cheating on tolls.
Chicago attorney Daniel Edelman filed the case April 15.
Edelman is seeking to invalidate the 600,000 bills sent by the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority since August to collect on thousands of dollars in unpaid tolls and fines. Motorists who paid the fines will be reimbursed if the case is successful, he said.
Edelman said the tollway authority erred by not adequately preparing for the onslaught of complaints from drivers hit with the bills. Driver who want to protest the charges have encountered repeated busy signals when they called the tollway authority to protest.
"That's a violation of due process," Edelman said.
Last week, the tollway authority agreed to spend $65,000 to beef up its phone lines.
Guy Tridgell
"They scared the hell out of me," the 73-year-old Oak Forest retiree said. "That's a hell of a chunk of money."
Healy is one of more than 600,000 recipients of violation notices sent by the tollway authority in recent months to collect on missed tolls and fines since 2006.
Healy wasn't driving the Buick sedan caught zipping through toll plazas without paying.
His son was.
But because of the tollway authority's delay in cracking down on toll cheats, surprised car owners such as Healy are just finding out they are thousands of dollars in hock.
Terry Pastika, executive director of the watchdog Citizen Advocacy Center in Elmhurst, accused the tollway authority of hitting the public with a "tsunami" of fines.
Among the penalized are elderly and out-of-town drivers who still are unfamiliar with the ways of I-PASS, the electronic system of collecting tolls through prepaid accounts by driving through designated lanes.
"What is happening is people who don't know how the system works are getting these monster fines," Pastika said. "We are getting tons and tons of phone calls from people who are in a panic over these notices because they were not sent in a timely matter."
The outcry from the driving public has been strong, with the General Assembly threatening to get involved.
The tollway authority blamed the backlog on a switch of vendors hired to handle toll enforcement.
But last week, in response to driver complaints, tollway authority chairman John Mitola said he will seek to put a limit on how far back the agency can crack down on toll cheaters.
In the meantime, folks such as Healy are out of luck.
"The way the law is written, the violations are the same thing as a parking ticket. The registered owner of the vehicle is liable," tollway authority spokeswoman Joelle McGinnis said. "'I was not driving the car' is not an acceptable defense.
"Unfortunately, it does happen. But it is something a family must settle amongst themselves."
Healy quit driving three years ago, after fainting behind the wheel and running into a tree.
He said he kept the car for his son, Jim, to drive. The title stayed in his name.
Jim Healy admitted he goofed - blowing off 150 tolls in all. He said he drove to the tollway authority's Downers Grove headquarters to get the fine transferred to his name .
The offer was rejected.
"They told me my Dad was guilty. It was his car," he said. "I'm hurt because of what I did to my Dad."
His father, who lives in his tiny apartment on a fixed income, paid for the fines with his credit card April 10.
He figures interest charges will add a few more hundred dollars to his misery.
"I would think after 30 days or so they should notify you," Healy said. "I agree tolls should be paid, but this is exorbitant."
Guy Tridgell can be reached at gtridgell@southtownstar.com or (708)633-5970.
2 comments on Oak Forest man doesn't drive; billed $3,100 for tolls
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Sounds as though the son needs a swift kick in the rear end.
Uh, yeah!