Stoked27

If this has been answered in the past I apologize. I couldn't find anything easily in the search function.

Got a letter from Florida DOT (SunPass) that I had nine toll booth violations from the last four months that need to be paid. I tracked it down to my wife driving my vehicle those days and have proof. The picture shows the car going through the human-manned cash lane, so I believe her when she says that she paid each time (maybe she went through too quickly after paying?). We don't drive on toll roads often, so these are likely 100% of the time she drove those routes. I don’t believe for a second that she would’ve smiled at the person and dashed through without paying, but whether she did or didn't doesn't really matter now that I got the violation.

These are considered non-moving violations, but I’ve just learned that since it was my car there is no way to challenge the tickets in an effort to get the violations to be attributed to her. So it’ll stick against my name whether I fight it or not. I’m still building my 1,500 hours with hopes of getting to a Major/Legacy one day and am trying to maintain as clean of a record as possible. I feel comfortable to reasonably explain this once in front of a person in an interview, but my larger concern is on applications am I going to have to list a number of “violations” opposed to “moving violations?” How are the application questions worded? I would imagine if I input 11-12 for driving violations (9 toll booth + a couple prior speeding) it’ll be hard to get an interview at a Major. I'm in my 30's and haven't had a violation (even non-moving) for at least 7-8 years.

How will I have to present this information before getting in front of a hiring official to explain this? How will this affect me?

I’ll be signing up for Sunpass now to cover myself in the future. Thanks for any feedback.

TiredSoul

Ha...now this is an interesting one.
I think you need to straighten this out with Sun Pass first.
May need to get an ambulance chaser attorney.
See if it’s wise to take this to court.
Acquaintance beat a traffic camera ticket as he could provide evidence he was out of town that day.

rickair7777

Yeah try to make it go away, not worth having to explain.

Otherwise read the application questions very carefully, and find out what exactly those violations are. They might be some sort of admin violation which would not show on your driving record. You might not have to disclose them on some applications. For example I don't think there's any easy way for employers to obtain parking ticket records, and they don't care anyway.

Since your wife did it, you could simply not disclose it on the app, but mentioned what happened at the interview in case they do find it somehow. Maybe bring a signed letter from your wife.

FlyGuy17

What about red light camera tickets? I got a red light camera ticket in Denver about 10 years ago. From what I could find online, it’s not reported to the DMV at all. Do I need to tell the airlines about something like this? I saw a thread a while ago about this but no definitive answer was given. Should I bring it up in the interview if it’s not listed on the application?

Bucknut

I used to drive the toll roads in Florida every day. Check your Sunpass acct and make sure your credit card is up to date. You may need a new transponder also. These are violations related to your account not like a parking ticket or speeding ticket . It won't show up anywhere on a driving record. I would get them periodically if I changed credit cards or if my battery was low on the transponder.

PotatoChip

I had something like 12 toll violations with EZPass from Sept - Oct in three different states due to a problem with my credit card that I was unaware of. I didn't know until I received the letters in the mail with the violations and penalties. I was in good standing before this, so I called the three different states and sorted it out. I paid my due balances, all penalties were waved, and I provided a new credit card on my account.
Since then, I have been hired at a major and never disclosed this. Honestly, disclosing it never even crossed my mind until I read this thread! No police were involved, only the collecting agency, so it never even dawned on me to think about it.
Point being, as long as you get the money squared away, it's a non-issue.

SonicFlyer

With red light cameras, technically, they fine the car, not the driver (since they can't prove the driver). I would think it would be similar for toll violations?

So you could say that you don't have any violations (but your car does).


And also, don't take legal advice from the Internet ;-)


I would highly recommend this guy:

https://ejdirga.com/traffic-ticket-defense/

Stoked27

I think I’ve gotten this squared away so I’ll provide an update in case this helps anyone else in the future.

My initial comments about this being a non-moving violation was based on consultation with Saul Goodman (an ambulance chaser attorney). Upon further research and discussion with SunPass employees, they are NOT non-moving violations, but rather an “invoice.” Failing to pay the invoice results in a Registration Stop on the vehicle, so maybe this is where the non-moving violation assumption came from. On a follow-up call with Saul, I stated my new information that I received from SunPass and he didn’t object to the classification of the “invoice” and lack of it being a non-moving violation. Both SunPass and the attorney recommended just paying the bill since it won’t be a violation on my driving record.

The word “violation” gets thrown around very subjectively in this situation even by myself, but it’s not really a violation of any sorts. The best reasoning I was provided was that the DOT doesn’t want people causing accidents by swerving into cash-only lanes if they don’t have a SunPass account (assuming they were stuck in traffic headed toward a SunPass checkpoint). In this instance the DOT wants people to stay in the SunPass lane to be safe, then the toll invoice will be mailed to your home. That’s what I received, even though I’m still baffled about it being from the cash lane. Whatever.

Thank you to everyone who provided feedback. Bucknut and PotatoChip were correct with how my situation lined up with theirs. Also, from what I found out I didn’t learn how any of this would correlate to red-light camera issues, but it’s possible it would be treated differently since the toll booth issue is a matter of mailing an invoice (simply collecting a fee) opposed to a law that was actually broken. Worth more research for that topic.

sourdough44

I was on the tollway in FL a few months ago. The rental car had the ‘flipper’ to pay the tolls. Not sure if I was in the correct lane or not, so far nothing has caught up with me.