Kasheita Turner faced a frustrating ordeal when she couldn’t renew her vehicle registration due to over $1,400 in toll violations—charges that didn’t belong to her. Officially listed as a habitual toll dodger, Turner insists she rarely uses toll roads. “I don’t even live near one. My job in Rosedale, Maryland, is a 30-minute drive with no tolls involved,” she explained.
Yet, when she tried to renew her expired registration, she discovered a toll flag blocking her, tied to $1,481 in unpaid tolls, including $1,175 in penalties. The issue? The violations were linked to a license plate starting with “6FA,” while hers reads “6EA.” “I noticed it wasn’t my plate,” Turner said.
The mix-up first surfaced in 2021. After contacting E-ZPass customer service, she got it resolved—temporarily. In January 2024, the problem resurfaced, prompting her to seek help from WMAR-2 News reporter Mallory Sofastaii. “Once I reached out to you, it was fixed.
They assured me I’d be on a special list to prevent this from happening again,” Turner recalled. But by early 2025, the issue returned, plunging her into weeks of exasperating attempts to reach customer service. “The first call had a 68-minute wait.
I called back—93 minutes. Two days later, it was an hour and six minutes,” she said. During an interview, she tried again; the wait was 48 minutes. She’d opted for callbacks but never received them. “It’s like a part-time job just trying to sort this out,” she lamented.
After Turner enlisted Sofastaii’s help again, the reporter contacted the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA). Within 24 hours, the erroneous charges were lifted, allowing Turner to renew her registration. Seeking answers, Sofastaii asked MDTA how these errors occur and their frequency.
A spokesperson responded via email: “If a license plate’s alphanumeric sequence is confused with another, we add it to our exceptions list. We continuously check to catch and reassign transactions to the correct plate.” About 777 accounts are currently on this list.
MDTA is investigating why Turner’s case slipped through, promising an update, and noted their lane-side vendor boasts a 99.8% accuracy rate for two-axle vehicles.
Turner wasn’t impressed. “AI can mimic a celebrity, but you can’t tell an E from an F? That’s alarming,” she quipped. MDTA admitted they don’t track disputes specific to E/F mix-ups. As of January 8, nearly 89,000 drivers were grappling with toll flags.
When Sofastaii pressed MDTA on why they don’t send multiple notices to curb escalating penalties, they explained they’re legally required to send one notice, giving drivers 30 days to pay before a $25-per-toll fine kicks in.
Turner finds the system maddeningly unfair. “We have to escalate this to senators, reporters, or outsiders just to get a response. These issues can send us to collections or block renewals—it’s ridiculous,” she said.
MDTA countered that their average customer service wait time is 40 seconds, but a recent spike in calls—over 500 daily—tied to a text scam about fake toll debts has driven delays. Mondays, they added, are the busiest.
Skeptical the fix is permanent, Turner joins a chorus of drivers fed up with registration woes tied to toll disputes.
