A professional New York City driver was blindsided when the MTA hit him with over $14,000 in E-ZPass late fees and had his license suspended — despite claiming he paid his tolls on time.
Luis Corporan, a longtime licensed driver with the Taxi and Limousine Commission, has been without a paycheck since receiving a Feb. 9 DMV notice stripping him of his driving privileges and outlining mounting fees and penalties from tolls he thought he had already paid, CBS New York reported.
The married father of four said the MTA has since stonewalled his desperate pleas for an appeal.
“As drivers, we have to be on top of it, but I was on top of it, paying my tolls bills,” Corporan told the outlet.
“When I heard the amount, there was no words. I just hung up the phone and started just thinking, where would I get the money from.”
The charges stretch back years, leaving him on the hook for $2,134 in unpaid tolls and $11,900 in late fees, Corporan said.
While he had received ocassional notices from the MTA, the stunned driver thought they were for tolls he had already paid through the app. He’s also now wondering why his E-ZPass tag worked at some tolls but not others, according to the outlet.
“Why wasn’t it reading it here, but then it actually started reading here?” Corporan explained, staring at the breakdown of the staggering bill.
When Corporan tried to work out a deal with the MTA’s toll payer advocate, he said the agency offered to settle for about $8,000 – but only if he paid by the end of the day. Without that kind of money, and with even less now, his debt continues to pile up.
The MTA sidestepped the issue when CBS inquired about Corporan’s case.
“People who pay their tolls don’t pay fines,” the agency told the outlet, calling the case and others the outlet has reported on examples of “willful persistent toll evasion.”
The MTA did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
While similar penalties have reportedly crippled other Big Apple drivers, state Assemblyman Mike Reilly is pushing for a bill to cap the eye-popping fees the MTA insists are legal.
“To me, that is just sheer not caring about people,” Reilly told CBS of the transportation agency.
“Even though something is legal doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right thing to do. That just means that we haven’t passed my legislation that caps what they can charge.”
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