Illinois Tollway Releases Deadbeat Motorists List To Predictable Outcry From Deadbeat Motorists
By Chuck Sudo in News on Aug 29, 2013 9:30PM
The Illinois Tollway released its “Super Scofflaws” list of motorists who owe more than $1,000 in unpaid tolls and fines, one day after Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation into law allowing them to do so. (Guess they had the list ready to post before the ink was dry on Quinn’s signature.)
The list of 157 is overwhelmingly dominated by trucking companies. The top offender is identified as Landa Transport in Frankfort, with nearly $215,000 in unpaid fees. Operations manager Eddie Garza, who took over the company after his father died in January, told the Tribune he had no idea his company owed that much money and that his drivers rarely take the Tollway, even though his trucks are equipped with I-Pass transponders.
"I could pretty much guarantee that we do not owe that much because we don't have that kind of equipment to generate that kind of money," he said. "We don't even spend that (amount) in fuel, let alone tolls."
According to Truckdriver.com, Landa Trucking only has two trucks. That’s a lot of unpaid tolls, if the list is accurate.
The Tribune spoke with two other offenders on the list, a day care center in Maywood and a company in Country Club Hills that provides rides for senior citizens and people with disabilities and mental illness to doctor’s appointments. Both companies said their vehicles were equipped with I-Pass transponders and had credit cards on file with the Tollway to automatically refill their accounts.
This raises the question: how many on the Tollway’s list can claim the same problem? A CBS2 investigation in March followed the story of a family that was assessed $27,000 in fines for $210 in missed tolls.
In April 2011 Sun-Times reporter Stephanie Zimmerman, in her “The Fixer” column, told the story of a single mother who was fined $36,000 over $84 in missed tolls. The Tollway Authority even apologized last August for improperly fining motorists for toll violations they didn’t make. So it's plausible, at the very least, that some of the offenders on the scofflaws list don't owe near as much as the Tollway claims, if at all.
Paul Cook, co-owner of Painters USA Inc. in Wheaton, told the Tribune his company has been fighting their fines for months because, Cook claims, the Tollway has the wrong records. Cook is pretty pissed his company is being called out publicly.
“It's not like we're running away or hiding,” he said.
Illinois Tollway executive director Kristi Lefleur said the list will be updated quarterly and that everyone on it has already been contacted by collection agencies to pay up.