CENTRAL FLORIDA — 9 Investigates troubled toll booths on Central Florida roads.
WFTV's review of emergency repairs shows some cash booths break down constantly.
Investigative reporter George Spencer discovered the Expressway Authority does not know how much money it's losing when the toll booths aren't working.
"I come through here every day (and) it's always broken," said driver Mindy Jaime.
In fact, one cash lane at the Semoran Boulevard exit from State Road 408 eastbound broke down more than any other in the Expressway Authority's system, WFTV learned.
That cash lane was broken down for over 90 days and it required 193 emergency repairs.
"You go to put the money and the light doesn't change. And you don't know what to do. You've paid the money, but you can't go through because the light hasn't changed," said driver Marla Abbe.
WFTV did an extensive review of the repair logs for February, March and April of this year.
From February to April, contractors logged almost 2,000 emergency repairs on the 78 cash toll booths, an average of 25 repairs per location or just less than one every three days.
The Expressway Authority insists drivers themselves are responsible for many of at the toll booths, often throwing items other than coins into the toll baskets.
The Expressway Authority said it does not track how much money it may lose from broken tolls. It said repairs are made within three hours, costs are built into a flat fee maintenance contract and three-fourths of drivers use transponders.
Drivers are still expected to pay when they pass a broken booth, but the Expressway Authority admitted that's done on the honor system and it does not mail them violations if they don't.
It also can't track how many actually pay. The Expressway Authority said it does not think it is losing a significant amount of money from broken toll booths.
Officials said that many drivers still pay even when they pass a jammed booth.
Officials also said that when coin machines are out of order, the camera system automatically turns itself off.