By The newspaper
May 24, 2024, 3:03 PM EDT
More than 800 “ghost” vehicles have been stopped by the NYPD and other agencies in recent months.
“Ghost” cars, which have emerged as a major problem on city streets during the pandemic, typically have fake or fraudulent license plates, giving drivers an advantage when fleeing police or trying to evade tolls.
False or fraudulent license plate covers and plates caused a loss of more than $46 million in toll revenue for the MTA in 2022, according to a fare evasion report released by the agency last year.
Since March, authorities have carried out 14 operations and seized 806 vehicles, made 184 arrests, issued 6,082 citations and estimated that more than $6.5 million dollars in unpaid tolls, fines and penalties are linked to these vehicles in 2024, he highlighted. DailyNews.
NYPD seizes hundreds of vehicles in “ghost car” crackdown.
License plate coverings and fake or fraudulent plates led to more than $46 million in lost toll revenue for the MTA in 2022. https://t.co/jNAMF0Ip2l
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) May 22, 2024
The crackdown, which also targets unlicensed drivers, typically involves having license plate readers at bridge crossings, with officers from the Port Authority (PANYNJ), the MTA, and sheriffs ready to intervene and make an arrest.
The MTA has installed more cameras in Manhattan in anticipation of the June 30 entry into effect of the controversial Congestion Charging (CBD), planned to ease traffic in Midtown and Lower Manhattan. The toll will be charged to drivers in varying amounts every day and hour, and the money will be invested in improving public transportation, according to authorities.
“The small fraction of motorists who would try to evade tolls are getting the message that there is no tolerance for it: we will detect them, we will stop them and we will give them consequences,” MTA Bridges and Tunnels Chairwoman Catherine Sheridan said in a statement. release.
In an operation last week on the Whitestone Bridge between the Bronx and Queens, young Donte Johnson, 22, tried to escape from the police after a license plate reader identified his Mercedes-Benz car for a “sentence for violation of the law” . The owner owed $5,798.97, a police source said.
Johnson crashed into a crane on the Bronx side of the bridge and was arrested for reckless endangerment, reckless driving, and obstruction of governmental administration. His three passengers were not charged, but a source said Johnson and two of the passengers were arrested for credit card fraud. The Mercedes belongs to a man in Hackensack, New Jersey, and had not been stolen.