On 5/27/2012 I was leading a trip of two passenger vans on
an annual excursion to Quebec Canada with 10
school students. We were driving from West Chester,
PA., and I needed to meet a parent in Newburg,
New York to
ease their commuter portion of the trip. Our school vans are not equipped with
easy pass technology. When I approached the exit coming from the south to Newburg
I was very focused on finding a way to get off the thruway and meet a parent
at a restaurant in Newburg. I saw a sign that stated “local access” and
followed it assuming that there would not be local access in the other
direction of the fork in the road. Unfortunately, this was a mistake on my
part.
After I realized that I had made a mistake I attempted to
pay the toll by parking both vans and walking to two different toll booths. The
toll taker told me that they could no longer accept my ticket. I spent
approximately 45 minutes trying to correct my mistake. This is an injustice in
the system. When a person who makes a logical mistake is not allowed to correct
it, then I believe the system is broken. The toll takers should be empowered
with the discretion to right wrongs. If that were not the case, then you should
remove them, and automate every toll booth. On that day I was very sorry for
what I had done, but I had no alternative to correct it. My school received the
ticket and informed me of my poor decision.
I am grateful to pay my toll which I attempted to pay twice
before this point. I appeal the $50 fine for the following reasons.
- I feel the sign “local access” mislead me.
- I am double paying a fine because an innocent driver in the other van followed me in my mistake because I was leading them.
- I believe that this mistake should have been able to be resolved by the competent toll takers who should be paid to make these kinds of judgments.
