YARDLEY, PA – The bi-state Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC) today released video footage of a New Jersey man hiding his license plate to skirt a toll charge at the Scudder Falls Toll Bridge in late March.
The video footage excerpts (DOWNLOAD HERE) show Ronnie Melendez, 36, of Ewing, N.J. exiting his vehicle on the bridge’s Pennsylvania-bound shoulder and then covering his vehicle’s license plates before getting back in the vehicle’s driver seat and proceeding beneath the bridge’s all-electronic toll-collection gantry into Pennsylvania.
Melendez’s roadside license-plate covering actions were viewed by Commission security personnel and recorded by cameras on the bridge on the evening of March 29. Security personnel were able to record the license plate numbers on Melendez’s vehicle before he obscured them.
The license information and film footage were forwarded to Pennsylvania State Police who tracked down Melendez and filed a summons in Lower Makefield, PA municipal court for obscuring license plates. Melendez subsequently pleaded guilty and provided payment of $229.10 in fines and other assessments to the municipal court, which was recorded on April 8
Had Melendez crossed the bridge without obscuring his license plates, he would have been mailed a TOLL-BY-PLATE invoice for $3. If he had E-ZPass, the toll would have been $1.25.
In an unrelated toll-evader development, the Commission announced the recent receipt of $61,883.43 from the TEV Corporation, a Newark, N.J. trucking firm named in a series of 2018 lawsuits the Commission 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. With the TEV lawsuit result, the Commission has now collected more than $123,000 in unpaid tolls and fees from trucking firms cited in the 2018 lawsuits.
“As these recent toll-scofflaw matters attest, we intend to use every tool at our disposal to enforce compliance at out toll-collection points along the Delaware River,” said Joe Resta, the DRJTBC’s executive director. “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.”
