Peach Pass fines imposed on man who doesn’t drive on highways
Metro Atlanta man fined repeatedly for driving in Georgia Express Lanes, but it wasn’t his vehicle.
ATLANTA, Ga. (CBS46) - Jerry Sammons was not overly concerned when Georgia’s State Road and Tollway Authority (SRTA) sent him a toll violation notice in February 2020.
SRTA included a surveillance photo showing his personalized license plate, but the offending driver’s car was different. Sammons owns an Infinity, but the car in the photo showed a much larger GMC or Chevrolet SUV.
“I don’t drive on expressways,” Sammons told Better Call Harry, CBS46′s Consumer Investigator.
The 77-year-old retiree said he drives his car once a week for appointments, and those are never far from his Dunwoody home. But the fines continued.
More than two years later the offending driver, with a matching license plate number “7644,″ has driven in Peach Pass lanes five times:
- 02/11/2020
- 04/28/2020
- 05/30/2020
- 04/20/2021
- 04/04/2022
CBS46 confirmed the vehicle belongs to a law enforcement officer with Georgia’s Department of Public Safety. A SRTA spokesperson said state agencies like Georgia State Patrol (GSP) are exempt from fines.
The fines are minimal, totaling less than $60, but Sammons is tired of fighting to get the fines removed.
“I just feel that it is an example of complete incompetence,” Sammons said, who has repeatedly called SRTA to dispute the fines. After writing SRTA’s director, three of the fines were removed. Sammons was told the agency would flag his license number and car so that it would not happen again.
Since then, however, Sammons has received two additional fines for the law enforcement vehicle illegally driving in the toll lanes.
The fines then became an issue he couldn’t ignore, since one of the remaining fines went to Professional Account Management, a collections agency for SRTA. That agency takes over SRTA’s uncollected fines that are still outstanding after two years.
Tiffany McCall, SRTA’s director of communications, told CBS46 Sammons’ remaining fines have been removed and he won’t have to worry about fines in the future.
“Once we identified that Mr. Sammons doesn’t use our lanes, we went the extra mile,” McCall said. She added when drivers have a dispute, they can call SRTA’s customer service center and ask to speak with a supervisor or email the dispute on their website.
“Again, our apologies that he had to go through that, but I think he’s satisfied,” McCall said.
Anyone wishing to dispute a toll violation can email SRTA at customerservice@peachpass.com; call customer service at 1-855-PCH-PASS (724-7277) and ask them to document the dispute; or go to their website www.mypeachpass.com and live chat at the bottom of the home page.
Update: Shortly after this story went live an SRTA spokesperson confirmed the Peach Pass website had been updated “to ensure that customers are aware of their options to communicate with us regarding their disputes.”
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