Failure to pay toll citation in TX, I live in PA, plus it's silly - any options?

One night, I took my parents on a joyride in my new car and we ended up on a highway toll road. I couldn't just make a U-turn so I drove up to the toll booth and told the operator, "I got lost. Would you let me pass so I can turn around?". She said okay and lifted the gate for me to pass. But as soon as I exited the toll booth (and I knew this was going to happen), highway patrol pulled me over (WTF?) and I had to repeat my story to the cop. Then he ran my license and registration for "bonus action". After what seemed like forever, the cop finally let me go. Glad I could help the cops break the monotony that night.

martin628 said:   On every GPS is a route setting where you can plan your route to be without tolls. In a non-familiar area, it's the best way to travel and avoid these hassles...

FYI the hertz neverlost has no such option, unless it's really well hidden. I tried to find it and I'm good with this kind of stuff. Actually right after this happened I tried to get to the hotel without touching the toll road, and I basically had to bumble around for an hour driving far away from it before the GPS finally picked a route not utilizing it.

OK so basically I talked to someone at the judge's office and they said the police citations don't go into their system for 7-14 days, and before that happens they have no information on them and can't do anything with them. She said to call back in 2 weeks and we'd be able to discuss it further. I did explain what happened and she understands why I did what I did, agreed that it was really unfortunate and she hopes I can get out of it somehow. She did say that worst case I have to pay the full fine and wouldn't have to show up to court if that happened (that was my major worry, that I would be required to show up to even get the fine). She said she didn't know how much the fine is because these toll violation citations are rare (mental note: that's a good sign, that means it's not an intentional racket to fleece out of towners out of their money). She guessed something like $150.

I googled it and it says the max fine is $250 plus administrative fees. That's not completely the end of the world if I end up having to pay that, although it is ridiculous.

She also had no idea of whether or not it assesses points if I just pay the fine, or goes on my record. My record is 100% clean of any tickets at all so I really don't want my insurance to go up because of this. I tried googling but couldn't find anything that said if it does.

So basically I have to call back in two weeks, i'll probably try in a week and a half, and explain what happened again and they will forward it on to someone (she said the DA I think?) who has the power to do stuff about it, and hopefully they will, before the court date.

Thanks again to everyone who posted their own similar anecdotes or gave advice, it makes me feel like I have a pretty good shot at getting this dismissed.

magika said:   A similar thing happened to me a year or two ago - I was driving a rental car and came upon a toll road and didn't know the car had an electronic pass installed on it. I drove through the lane to pay but no one was there to give money to, so I drove on...and got stopped by a cop outside of the toll booth area almost immediately. Write, do not call, the judge (make sure you send the letter via UPS or FedEx with tracking though). In your letter, be very polite (bad talking the police is a bad idea - it never goes over well - just stick to the facts), and ask them throw out the ticket due to the circumstances. When I did that the judge's secretary (I think - it was someone who worked for the court) called after about two weeks and said the ticket was thrown out.

Perfect, thanks. I'm guessing this didn't happen to be in Texas? Your advice is very good and is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. I talked to them and they said the ideal time to send the letter would be in 2 weeks when they have the citation so I'm going to go ahead and do that.

May I add, if you do end up writing a letter, it would be best if you could say that you called the toll authority and made sure you paid the toll, since you weren't trying to evade your responsibility. If they give you some kind of confirmation number for the payment, it would look better to include that.

rmhop said:   Love8008s said:   I live in TX. The cops here are awful, the minorities will say they are racist, but really they're just f'ing assholes. If you are not an important person (read donor or politician (celebrities don't usually count as they are Dems) then you are screwed.where r u in texas?

I've lived in 3 of the 4 major cities: Houston, Austin, San Antonio. I've visited Dallas a lot, but never lived there.

My wife got stopped once for going 32 in a 30 zone. The pig stopped a 5'0" woman with a crying baby in the backseat in our own neighborhood, called another cop car in and they both proceeded to perform an inspection on the car (in TX, each car needs an inspection every year). Our inspection was uptodate but I guess they were trying to get a ticket out of this. She ended up getting a warning but the experience was awful.

I had a similar experience in Orlando a few years back minus the cop/ticket. It was late at night and there was a coin bucket but the manned booth was closed. I didn't have EZ Pass and all my change was in my bag (thanks TSA) which was in the trunk, totally unavailable as I was the only person in the car.

I sat there for a second but couldn't do anything about it since there were 2 other cars behind me. I made a note of the time and location and called the transit authority a day or two later. They had a record of my violation (based on the license tag) and told me where to send a check for $0.50 to. It cost me nearly that much in stamps to mail it to them.

So dumb and so annoying. If a cop had pulled me over for it, I would have been SO ANNOYED!! You have handled things great so far IMO.

wfay said:   I had a similar experience in Orlando a few years back minus the cop/ticket. It was late at night and there was a coin bucket but the manned booth was closed. I didn't have EZ Pass and all my change was in my bag (thanks TSA) which was in the trunk, totally unavailable as I was the only person in the car.

I sat there for a second but couldn't do anything about it since there were 2 other cars behind me. I made a note of the time and location and called the transit authority a day or two later. They had a record of my violation (based on the license tag) and told me where to send a check for $0.50 to. It cost me nearly that much in stamps to mail it to them.

So dumb and so annoying. If a cop had pulled me over for it, I would have been SO ANNOYED!! You have handled things great so far IMO.

Your bank's billpay will cover the cost of the stamp. No need to be mailing unverifiable paper checks and paying postage to do so.

In such a situation, a forward thinking person would notice it's late at night, with nobody around, and remove the tag long enough to go through. Just remember where the camera is pointing. It isn't as if they gave you another option. If they want to collect tolls, they need to provide a manned booth or a change accepting machine.

jcaserta said:   She also had no idea of whether or not it assesses points if I just pay the fine, or goes on my record. My record is 100% clean of any tickets at all so I really don't want my insurance to go up because of this. I tried googling but couldn't find anything that said if it does.

PA should not assess the points unless you are a CDL holder.

http://www.dmv.state.pa.us/pdotforms/fact_sheets/fs-dlc.pdf

SUCKISSTAPLES said:   Horseymen said:   

 

I'd say "inoperative tollbooth" is an affirmative defense to "failure to pay toll" - but (I've always wanted to say this!) I am not a lawyer.
Sounds good to me. It's an impossibility to pay the toll at an inoperative tollbooth . Moreover, the officer knew it because he was ahead of you in the inoperative booth lane. For him to charge you with failure or refusal to pay toll is him knowingly charging you of an improper offense.

It is absolutely ridiculous what this officer did and he needs to be sanctioned for his conduct

I definitely appreciate your opinion.

The officer was obviously new, I didn't mention some of the things he said but it was clear to me that he was not experienced. For example when he asked for license and insurance I gave him my license, but told him that it's a rental car and asked if there should be some kind of insurance card or registration somewhere that I needed to find since I've never been stopped in a rental before. He started BSing in a manner that told me he obviously had no idea, and started implying that I could be written up for not having insurance, since I didn't buy insurance from hertz. Luckily I mentioned that my company agreement with Hertz gives me insurance even though I didn't check the box - which is true, but is obviously irrelevant, but it got him to stop going down that line of thinking.

The worst part is that I am very good with police - I've been pulled over once every few years over my 15 years of driving and have never actually gotten a ticket until now because I'm extremely polite, good at seeing where the officer is coming from , show lots of respect, am very even tempered, etc. But this guy completely fulfilled every asshole cop stereotype and it took everything I had not to blow up at him. Ridiculous conversations like:

"Officer, I completely understand why you would pull me over since I didn't pay the toll, but there was actually no way for me to pay it since I don't have coins or a tag. In PA where I'm from there are always attendants to take cash other than in rare cases where it's clearly marked with a sign. So I'm sure you can understand why that happened, and it won't happen again now that I know, but isn't requiring me to fly back across the country to go to court a little bit harsh considering what I did?"
"No sir, you didn't pay the toll, and you don't pay a toll you get a ticket."
"But I couldn't pay the toll - the attendant station is closed. You could see me trying to find a way to pay it"
"Then you should have brought coins. I always bring coins on a toll road."
"I see now that that's a good idea, but where I'm from that's not necessary, and I just came from the airport, so can you see how I wouldn't have coins?"
"No sir, I've paid tolls in lots of states and I always bring coins."
"I understand, but I didn't know that so I didn't have coins. There were no signs telling me I needed coins. What should I have done when I was stuck here without coins?"
"Obviously you should have paid the toll, but you didn't and broke the law so I'm going to need you to sign the ticket."
(it was around this point where every time I said a word he interrupted with "Sir please sign at the bottom" repeatedly)

I live in Houston and just got a speeding ticket from a Constable (which admittedly I deserved.) It's much easier for me to pay the ticket online than to contest it. I agree you don't deserve the ticket since you got bad advice, but I would not ignore it. Check out the website for the Harris County Constable Precint that's checked on the back of your ticket. Do a search and eventually (it may take a couple of months!), you will find your name with a citation number and cost of the ticket. See how much the fine is before trying to get it fixed. Handwritten tickets by constables don't have citation numbers and can't even be discussed until they get put into the system electronically.

You might have a lot better luck contacting the Texas Toll Authority in Houston about the situation. It's a lot easier to talk to someone in person, and usually toll tickets are waived if you have a good excuse. At least, that's what I was able to do when I received one in the mail with a photo of my "license plate" on a car going through the EZ Tag. The car wasn't mine so they just cancelled the ticket. I don't know if electronic toll tickets are different from what the constable issued to you. Good luck.

LCH59 said:   
Check out my first response to your question. It took my speeding ticket two months to get put into the system! You should keep checking online until you see your name and your citation number. Then, and only then, can anyone do anything about it.

http://web.jp.hctx.net/FindMyCase/welcome.html

Thanks, was yours also Harris County, or a different one? If it really is 2 months I'm not really sure how that would work since my court date is less than 2 months from now.

uutxs said:   jcaserta said:   "Officer, I completely understand why you would pull me over ...
but isn't requiring me to fly back across the country to go to court a little bit harsh considering what I did?"
I know you mentioned requiring "personal appearance" in the court earlier as well. What is your basis for this? Just the cop BSing as you stated. If so, I would take that with a fistful of salt. I have never heard of this requirement for personal appearance for minor offenses (e.g., speeding, toll violation, etc.), unless you are contesting the ticket.

Overall, looks like this was just a cop blowing things up and you taking his word literally.

yeah that was based on what he was telling me and he didn't know what he was talking about, after talking to the judge's office the one thing they could definitely tell me was that that part wasn't true - it is in fact an option to simply pay whatever the fine ends up being without having to appear in court, although there is some question of how I figure out what that number is, but I think that will just take some phone calls once the citation is in the system.

So that's much better than I thought it would be as of my first post.

Pay the toll and then send a letter to the judge explaining what happened.
The charge will be dropped.

jcaserta said:   DPG said:   Pay the toll and then send a letter to the judge explaining what happened.
The charge will be dropped.

IAAL (in Houston)

That's the plan, now that I've got multiple lawyers telling me this should work I'm feeling pretty good about it, so thanks. I'll report back in a couple weeks.

Did you go through the full service lane in the end? If so, HCTRA will not have a record so you won't be able to pay them.

Also, what precinct issued the citation?

Love8008s said:   I live in TX. The cops here are awful, the minorities will say they are racist, but really they're just f'ing assholes. If you are not an important person (read donor or politician (celebrities don't usually count as they are Dems) then you are screwed.

Not in Austin. Which isn't really Texas, to be sure.

This wasn't a failure to stop. It's still possible to stop if a traffic light is out.

It is impossible to pay a toll if there is no one at a manned booth

(btw typically it's illegal to back up on a toll road to get over to the next lane that's automated)

krschee said:   Obligatory Tollbooth Flaming Car video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX4ZZqW790s


I've lived in Dallas for 3 years, used to defend it for how "nice" people are, but am counting the days when I move back to California.

Texas has some of the worst drivers I have ever seen (worse than drivers in Los Angeles). Everyone drives like they drive a tractor. There is little police enforcement of traffic laws. The highways are SO POORLY DESIGNED--entrances and exits are placed right next to each other so as to maximize accidents, I swear TXDOT is run by monkeys.

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/In-Dallas-Drive-At-Your-Own-Ris...

Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Austin all received "F"s.

Oh, and don't piss anybody off on the roads or you might get your face blown off since CCW is so common.

Don't mess with Texas? I routinely see Texans dumping garbage into the streets, the creeks, lakes of their beloved state. What a joke.

I travel a lot for work, I actually was in Los Angeles earlier this week and now in Houston. Los Angeles gets a bad rap for it's drivers but I find Texas is by far the worst drivers I've ever seen. I think in southern CA people drive a little more aggressively, but they're much better drivers. Houston in particular is bad. I've been in Dallas and San Antonio and they're moderately better.

And the roads in TX are insane - nothing's marked, everything loops over other roads in random fashion, constant construction, don't even get me started on the fact that basically all businesses seem to be on the roads going below highways that are confusingly called the highway itself. Maybe it's just the fact that I didn't learn to drive here but I find it extremely confusing.

Actually many courts (at least here in CA) have volunteer attorneys or staff attorneys come in who offer "self help" sessions for the public, free of charge, usually for pro se litigants with small claims, family law and traffic cases like this

This is provided as a public service regardless of income or need. I have volunteered in the family law division .

saladdin said:   Love8008s said:   rmhop said:   Love8008s said:   I live in TX. The cops here are awful, the minorities will say they are racist, but really they're just f'ing assholes. If you are not an important person (read donor or politician (celebrities don't usually count as they are Dems) then you are screwed.where r u in texas?

I've lived in 3 of the 4 major cities: Houston, Austin, San Antonio. I've visited Dallas a lot, but never lived there.

My wife got stopped once for going 32 in a 30 zone. The pig stopped a 5'0" woman with a crying baby in the backseat in our own neighborhood, called another cop car in and they both proceeded to perform an inspection on the car (in TX, each car needs an inspection every year). Our inspection was uptodate but I guess they were trying to get a ticket out of this. She ended up getting a warning but the experience was awful.

She broke the law by speeding. Tough sh*t.

To pull any motorist over for going less than 10% over the posted speed limit is ridiculous.

There is a thing called uncertainty in the real world. Your car is not going exactly 30mph when your speedometer says it is going at 30mph, the radar may have been out of calibration, the cop could have operated it improperly, pointed it at the wrong car, etc.

I hope next time you drive 0.000001 mph over the limit, a cop will pull you over and hand you a ticket after a full drug search because you were technically breaking the law.