Man’s motorcycle never left New Hampshire but he was dinged dozens of times for New York

A Manchester man charged dozens of times in electronic tolls on highways that he never drove on is now sharing his story as a warning for others.The problem led to a months-long headache for Robert Wall that began in the early summer, shortly after he purchased a new motorcycle.”Put the motorcycle onto my E-ZPass account, and I noticed an increase in frequency of my automatic replenishments from the E-ZPass account,” Wall said. “What I would consider an unnecessary headache.”And when the charges kept coming, he took a closer look.”I noticed that there were multiple toll transactions that were applied to my account that I didn’t make,” Wall said.The transactions happened 240 miles away on the Bear Mountain Bridge in Garrison, New York.There were also transactions from the Bronx, Yonkers, Harriman and Beacon — all in the Empire State.Each toll charged Wall’s account while his motorcycle sat in New Hampshire.”I think there were about 53 transactions in total with a price of a little over $125,” Wall said.While he never rode his motorcycle on New York highways, Wall noticed that the license plate number charged to his account matched the plate that was issued to his bike.He made a call to E-ZPass New Hampshire. “It turned out there was another vehicle in another state, and in my case, it was New York,” Wall said. “They were going through the toll booth without an active transponder generating a plate charge and apparently mine was the first plate under the E-ZPass system that came up that they decided to charge against.”Wall said E-ZPass representatives told him the state identification on the other plate was likely blocked from the toll cameras, which led to the New York State Bridge Authority to charge Wall’s plate because it had matching numbers.“It doesn’t sound like at this present time that there’s any solution to prevent this from happening to any plate number,” Wall said.E-ZPass New Hampshire officials said they have seen similar problems when it comes to duplicate plate charges. Right now, an automatic system is currently being tested that will provide a more accurate review of license plates.Between July 2021 and June 2022, there were 108 million toll transactions in New Hampshire, but an exact number of how many involved duplicate plates is unknown.According to E-ZPass New Hampshire, misidentified plates can be filed under what’s called the “known problem plate list,” which does not include the reason each plate is listed.”If a person has been charged due to a misidentified duplicate plate, New Hampshire will issue a credit for erroneous New Hampshire toll charges,” E-ZPass New Hampshire officials said in a statement. “New Hampshire E-ZPass doesn’t know about a misidentified plate or erroneous charges until it is brought to our attention by the customer.”Wall got his money back, but he said it came with no guarantee that the issue wouldn’t happen again, so he has removed his plate number from his E-ZPass account.”I just encourage everyone to review your accounts, just for accuracy, to ensure that you’re not having misapplied charges,” Wall said.

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