Credit: DRJTBC
The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC) released video footage on Wednesday of a New Jersey man who attempted to evade toll charges at the Scudder Falls Toll Bridge in March.
The man – identified as Ronnie Melendez, 36, Ewing, New Jersey – was caught on camera covering his vehicle’s license plates before passing through the all-electronic toll-collection gantry into Lower Makefield Township.
Security personnel from the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission recorded Melendez’s roadside license-plate covering actions and forwarded the license information and film footage to Pennsylvania State Police.
Melendez was tracked down and subsequently pleaded guilty to obscuring license plates. He paid $229.10 in fines and other assessments this month.
If Melendez had crossed the bridge without obscuring his license plates, he would have been mailed a TOLL-BY-PLATE invoice for $3, while an E-ZPass toll would have been $1.25, the commission said in statement.
Credit: Tom Sofield/NewtownPANow.com
In another toll-evader development, the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission received $61,883.43 from the TEV Corporation, a Newark, New Jersey trucking firm named in a series of 2018 lawsuits filed against 20 trucking companies for evading tolls.
The TEV payment consisted of $22,364.85 in unpaid tolls and $39,518.58 in violation fees, the commission said.
The commission has now collected more than $123,000 in unpaid tolls and fees from trucking firms cited in the 2018 lawsuits.
“We intend to use every tool at our disposal to enforce compliance at our toll-collection points along the Delaware River. We are committed to ensuring everyone pays the tolls that are due because honest toll-paying customers shouldn’t be subsidizing the few who think they can cheat the system,” Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission Executive Director Joe Resta stated.
