Dartford Crossing: Drivers fined millions by mistake over busy crossing
Figures obtained by the PA news company roar Nationwide Highways cancelled 59,007 fines at the Dartford Crossing, which connects Thurrock in Essex with Dartford in Kent.
These penalty cost notices quantity to £4.1m combined at the level of difficulty, as every cost £70, reduced to £35 if paid inside 14 days.
Staunch 3,595 fines had been issued within the previous one year, the year sooner than Nationwide Highways switched to a contemporary provider to goal up funds there.
Dr Jenny Dunne, 64, became once charged 34 times within the seven months to leisurely April for crossings she didn’t fabricate, partly because a automobile with a quantity plate similar to hers – with a 3 rather then a 1 – became once incorrectly identified.
“I had no thought what became once taking place. Firstly I received rather upset,” she mentioned.
“I thought my quantity plate had been cloned so I contacted the police. It grew to alter into out the cameras had been defective. Or no longer it is taken an unpleasant lot of my time and wasted hundreds of my vitality.”
A Nationwide Highways spokesman mentioned it has apologised to Dr Dunne since discovering an article became once being written.
Interior most firm Conduent became once awarded a £150m contract by Nationwide Highways to goal up crossing funds from 28 July remaining year.
After then, there had been experiences of drivers fined or charged when a automobile with a the same plate dilapidated the crossing.
Nationwide Highways mentioned it has “resolved the flaws”.
Crossings made between 6am and 10pm are chargeable and the costs – identified because the High-tail Fee – must be paid by midnight the day after the crossing.
Fines are given to those that lift out no longer pay, with automatic quantity plate recognition cameras detecting autos on the crossing.
Considerations ‘resolved’
More than 55 million journeys are made on the crossing every year, with about two million fines processed for non-fee, and the Dartford Crossing connects with the M25, without a doubt one of the indispensable busiest motorways in Europe.
Nationwide Highways mentioned there had been “technical issues with the transition to the contemporary provider providers”.
“We realize that one thing associated to funds could even be nerve-racking, and we apologise for the disaster that these possibilities contain faced,” the community mentioned.
“Within the minority of conditions where PCNs are issued in error, the associated price will likely be cancelled as soon as a buyer contacts us to let us know.”
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The organisation additionally claimed they contain “resolved” the flaws and “considered the errors decrease to no longer as a lot as 1% of all PCNs issued”.
Conduent declined to observation.