BY KEVIN DUGGAN
MTA Bridges and Tunnels
cops seized a driver’s car at the
Whitestone Bridge in the Bronx
last week after they found the
motorist owed a whopping
$58,000 in unpaid tolls and fees.
The driver amassed those
debts since 2017 and is one of
the MTA’s top toll violators,
the agency declared Tuesday,
adding that offi cials had sent
the car’s owner nearly 400 reminders
to pay his outstanding
debts.
“Our law enforcement personnel
are trained to look for
motorists who have repeatedly
failed to pay their tolls, and
are equipped with specialized
license plate readers that can
instantly identify those motorists,”
said MTA B&T President
Daniel DeCrescenzo in an Oct.
5 statement. “Drivers who have
failed to pay their toll bills are
subject to being pulled over and
having their car impounded. I
commend our offi cers for their
vigilance in making this stop.”
A different person was driving
the car at the time MTA offi
cers pulled them over, but its
owner — who MTA declined to
name — was issued a summons
for driving with a suspended
registration.
Since MTA transitioned to
cashless open road tolling four
years ago, offi cers have impounded
some 5,000 vehicles
from drivers who failed to pay
their tolls and they handed out
more than 31,000 summonses
for obstructed or covered license
plates, according to offi -
cials.
Tampered or obscured license
plates that make it hard
for the automated toll readers
to register can trigger a $138
fi ne.
One of MTA’s own bus superintendents
owed more than
$100,000 in tolls and fees to
three different agencies, including
MTA Bridges and Tunnels,
the state Thruway Authority
and the Port Authority
of New York and New Jersey,
a recent investigation by the
agency’s internal watchdog
found.
The bus bigwig covered up
his plates with an opaque plastic
shield and even bragged to
MTA Bridges and Tunnels impounded a driver’s car at the Whitestone Bridge because the motorist owed
$58,000 in unpaid tolls and fees. Photo courtesy MTA Bridges and Tunnels
colleagues about his misdeeds
that spanned the better part
of a decade, the MTA Inspector
Class of 2021
B.S. in Business
BRONX TIMES R 6 EPORTER, OCT. 8-14, 2021 BTR
General Carolyn Pokorny’s
probe found.
Unlike the driver recently
caught in the Bronx, the transit
honcho got to keep his car
and was instead demoted and
suspended without pay for 12
weeks, and MTA settled for
$10,000 of his debts with MTA
Bridges and Tunnels, about a
third of the $30,000 he owed the
agency in tolls and fees.
This story appears couertesy
of our sister publication am-
NewYork.
MTA impounds car of
toll dodger owing $58K
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