SENATE TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE
STATEMENT TO
[First Reprint]
SENATE COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR
SENATE, No. 801
with committee amendments
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DATED: MARCH 3, 1997
The Senate Transportation Committee favorably reports Senate Committee Substitute for Senate Bill No. 801 (1R) with committee amendments.
This amended bill authorizes the State's three toll road authorities - the New Jersey Highway Authority, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority and the South Jersey Transportation Authority - to adopt toll collection monitoring system regulations. The electronic collection of tolls on highways and bridges is in the process of being implemented in this State and New York by the inauguration of the "E-Z-pass system." This system permits a driver to pass through existing toll barriers without stopping for the purpose of manually depositing currency, coins or tokens. This system will permit tolls to be paid automatically by means of automated electronic identification of a vehicle at a toll booth and the debiting of a vehicle account. This allows tolls to be paid automatically while vehicles are in motion, thereby improving traffic flow and reducing delays and lines.
The toll collection monitoring system regulations which the authorities are authorized to adopt make it a violation subject to a civil penalty for any person to refuse to pay, to evade, or to attempt to evade the payment of tolls, if the violation is recorded by a toll collection monitoring system. A toll collection monitoring system is defined as a vehicle sensor, placed in a location to work in conjunction with a toll facility, that produces one or more photographs, one or more microphotographs, a videotape or other recorded images, or a written record, of a vehicle at the time the vehicle is used or operated in a violation of the toll collection monitoring system regulations. The term also includes any other technology that identifies a vehicle by photographic, electronic or other method. A toll collection monitoring system acquired or operated by, or under contract to, the authorities shall be so designed that it does not produce one or more photographs, microphotographs, a videotape or other recorded image or images of the face of the operator or any passenger in a motor vehicle.
The regulations, which are to provide for a civil penalty of not less than $50 nor more than $200 per violation, are to include a procedure for processing toll violations and for the treatment of inadvertent violations. With certain exceptions, an owner of a vehicle shall be jointly and severally liable for the failure of an operator of a vehicle to comply with the toll collection monitoring system regulations.
If a violation of the toll collection monitoring system regulations is committed as evidenced by a toll collection monitoring system, the agent of the authorities may send an advisory and payment request within 30 days of the date of violation to the owner of the vehicle. If the owner fails to pay the required toll and administrative fee not to exceed $25 per violation within 60 days of the date the request was sent, the owner shall be subject to liability on the 61st day. A certified report of an employee or agent of the authority reporting a violation of the toll collection monitoring system regulations and information obtained from a toll collection monitoring system shall not be discoverable as a public record by any person, entity or government agency nor shall they be offered in evidence in any civil, criminal or administrative proceeding, not directly related to a violation of the toll collection monitoring system regulations. If, however, a recorded image of the face of the operator or passenger is produced by the toll collection monitoring system, the image shall not be used by the authority for any purpose nor shall the image or any record or copy thereof be transmitted or communicated to any person, governmental, non-governmental or judicial or administrative entity.
In addition to the civil penalty that may be assessed by a court for violation of the toll collection monitoring system regulations, the court shall require the defendant to pay the proper toll and may require the defendant to pay a reasonable administrative fee not to exceed $25 per violation. The tolls and administrative fees shall be remitted to the authority by the court. The civil penalty is to be distributed pursuant to "the penalty enforcement law," N.J.S.2A:58-1 et seq.
The existing provisions of law concerning the authorities' toll collection regulations would continue to apply; however, an operator of a vehicle charged with the violation of these regulations shall not be liable for the civil penalty provided in this bill for the same incident.
The committee amended this bill to provide that a violation of the toll collection monitoring system regulations is to be evidenced by the toll collection monitoring system not by visual identification or other method of identification of vehicles, and that the monitoring system shall be so designed that it does not produce a recorded image of the face of the operator or any passenger of a motor vehicle. The committee also adopted amendments dealing with the time for payment of the administrative fee, the date on which the violation is subject to liability, and the prohibition on the use of the recorded image of the face of an operator or passenger of a motor vehicle, the discretion of the court to impose the administrative fee, and the distribution of the toll, fees and fines by the court. Finally, the amendments provide that an operator may not be charged with a violation of both the current toll collection regulations and the toll collection monitoring system regulations provided for in the bill for the same incident.