Were it not for being stuck in traffic, this Time Winder would have had this yesterday like the Los Angeles Times did, but Orange County's toll road agencies would forgive $40 million in fines and pay $1.4 million to drivers who claim they were charged excessive penalties, according to a proposed court settlement.
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The settlement would end a three-year legal battle pitting the Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA) and Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA)
against 16 plaintiffs who claim the agencies illegally fined them
nearly $334,000 for failing to pay about $2,500 in tolls. But the settlement could apply to tens of thousands of drivers, the Times reports.
Attorneys for the agencies and the drivers declined to comment while awaiting a review of the proposal in Orange County Superior Court. But the toll-takers did announce Monday the opening of a new FasTrak
lane in both directions on the Foothill (241) Toll Road at the Windy Ridge Toll
Plaza.
Local officials attended a Monday morning opening ceremony for the third FasTrak lane added in each direction through the Windy Ridge
Toll Plazas. The agencies claim the new lanes will improve traffic flow and ease the transition
between the toll plazas and the 91 freeway connectors. The $9.8 million project was totally funded with toll revenue, according to the agencies.
So, would that mean some of the alleged illegally obtained tolls helped pay for the lanes?
'Just sayin' . . .
The agencies also announced that the construction of four new cell towers along
the 241 Toll Road will be complete in late December and operational in January.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.