COLORADO, USA — It's been just about a year since drivers in Colorado began getting ticketed for crossing over the lines of a toll lane. At $75 a pop, those fines have topped $40 million.
Steve On Your Side has received numerous complaints from drivers ticked off about confusing signage and other issues which resulted in fines.
"[She] saw a dotted line, and thought she could cross over it to get into the express toll," Jacob Golter said about his wife. She got a $75 fine for entering the toll lane in an exit near Lucent Boulevard on C-470.
"I argued it where, you know, my wife drives every day, she's in a traveling job. And so she drives that road very frequently. She knows the layout. And we had never known that you couldn't go in that lane," Golter said.
His argument went nowhere.
"She basically said, well, that's just, it is what it is, and you got to pay it, otherwise, you pay additional fines," he said.
Ali Groff was headed to view her wedding venue when she said an emergency vehicle blocked the toll lane, which forced her to merge over and cross the double white line.
"All they kept saying was that they didn't have record of it. On their end, they didn't have any record of a vehicle being in the express lane that day."
But she had a record. Groff snapped her own photo showing the vehicle sitting in the lane.
Why? Turns out she had almost been burned before when the roadway was so packed with snow the lines weren't even visible. The photo attached to the ticket showed the lines couldn't be seen.
"I disputed it by taking a screenshot off my phone and resubmitting it to them. And then they dismissed it," she said.
So when the lane was blocked, she pulled out her phone and snapped a picture of that emergency vehicle blocking the lane.
Thousands of drivers have disputed their tickets through the Colorado Transportation Investment Office's website. Data obtained by Steve On Your Side shows about 22% had their tickets dismissed.
So, why is it so difficult to dispute? At a recent meeting of the Colorado Transportation Investment Office board, they said they're bound by law.
State law says there are technically only four reasons to dismiss a ticket.
- You no longer own the vehicle
- The vehicle was stolen
- Bankruptcy
- Vehicle owner is deceased
The website lists an "other" option under its drop menu, but at the board meeting officials admitted those who selected "other" would likely be denied.
"They can use the other option and then put that detail in there. But those are the ones that have been most likely to be denied, denied because they don't fall within those reasons that we are allowed to dismiss," an official said.
The Colorado Transportation Investment Office said they keep records of crashes and debris and other things that might make weaving in and out of toll lanes necessary.
RELATED: Here are the top 10 spots drivers are getting toll lane weaving tickets on Colorado interstates
But they still told Groff they had no record of the truck, which is clearly seen in her photo.
"I felt like we were just being sent in circles and being backed into a corner," she said.
After she mentioned speaking with Steve On Your Side, her fine disappeared.
If a driver is unsatisfied with the result of a dispute, they can ask for a special hearing. Our data shows of the more than 900 hearings so far, only about 50 ended with tickets getting dismissed.
Drivers who take their fine to a hearing and lose pay an extra $30.
We want to hear about your experience with toll tickets. Contact Steve On Your Side and Consumer Investigator Steve Staeger.