Computer-generated ticket in error New Castle woman didn't do it -- run a toll booth, that is Special to The News Journal/TOM NUTTER By MOLLY MURRAY Sussex Bureau reporter 09/27/2000

Charlene Dixon of New Castle recently received a ticket in the mail to pay a $25 fine for passing through the Denneys Road toll booth in Dover. The tag number on the photograph enclosed with the ticket was the same as hers -- but the prefix was a CL instead of PC as pictured.

Charlene Dixon just assumed pictures don't lie.

So when her mail included a photograph with her vehicle tag number on it and an order to pay a $25 fine for running through a toll booth without paying, she sat down to write the check.

"They've got me," she thought.

There was just one problem. Dixon, of Chelsea Estates near New Castle, couldn't remember running through a toll plaza. Then she noticed the alleged violation happened on a Tuesday at 7:06 a.m. -- her day off and certainly not a time she'd be out driving. And the paperwork said the toll plaza was at Denneys Road in Dover.

"I just can't place Denneys Road ramp and besides, I've never, ever not paid a toll," she said. "I said, 'OK, something is wrong with this picture.' "

So she got out a magnifying glass.

F.Y.I. If you have problems with camera-generated fines at Delaware toll booths, the Department of Transportation has a toll-free number: (800) 652-5600 (in Delaware) Sure enough, the numbers 104940 matched those on the rear bumper of her Dodge Durango.

"But when you look at the picture and get the magnifying glass, it says CL" in front of the number, she said.

Dixon has a PC tag.

"It's not me," she said. "It's clear."

State Department of Transportation spokesman D. Michael Williams said mistakes can happen with the automated system set up to catch motorists who roll through booths without paying.

A camera takes a picture of their license plate. Then the picture is cross-referenced with records from the state Division of Motor Vehicles.

"This isn't done manually by a person," Williams said. "It's done by a computer."

Challenging that system is no easy task, Dixon said. She is still trying to find someone who will listen to her plea, she said.

The problem, Dixon said, are her three choices for appealing the fine. On the back of the document, she could: indicate that her vehicle had been stolen, sold, leased or rented; check that she had made every reasonable effort to pay; or claim that she had mistakenly gone through an EZ Pass lane where cash is not accepted.

"It doesn't have a section to dispute the fine," she said.

And the phone number listed was for the Regional Consortium Service Center -- a group to which the state belongs so it won't have to set up its own customer service division for toll plaza fines -- in Secaucus, N.J.

"I would have to call long distance," Dixon said.

Williams said all Dixon had to do was call the Transportation Department Office of External Affairs. He said he did not understand why she called a newspaper instead.

"You can't get it waived," he said. "I can."

http://www.delawareonline.com/news/2000/sept/27camera.html

-- Doris (groomlk@bellsouth.net), September 28, 2000