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Since Sept. 20, nearly every vehicle in one particular lane had been classified as a truck at the Great Egg Harbor toll plaza in Somers Point, a spokesman for the New Jersey Turnpike Authority said. Those vehicles were charged at a truck's rate: $3.92 (or $3.72 off-peak), instead of $1.96.
After a little more investigation, officials found a cable tie on the gantry at the plaza had snapped. A cable was sagging and partially blocking a sensor used to determine vehicle classifications. Because of that, the sensor was mistakenly classifying everything as a Class 2 vehicle, NJTA said.
The cable was fixed last week, but about 4,000 vehicles a day — or 36,000 cars — had been classified incorrectly. The problem affected about 23 percent of the vehicles that went through Great Egg between Sept. 20 and 29.
"Drivers don’t have to do anything to have it corrected," NJTA spokesman Tom Feeney said. "The fix will happen automatically."
Drivers can check their accounts next week to confirm that any erroneous charges have been corrected. They can do that either with the NJ E-ZPass app or on the web at ezpassnj.com.
The NJTA expects the corrections to post to the accounts of New Jersey E-ZPass customers in about seven days. The corrections will take slightly longer to show up for customers who have their E-ZPass accounts through other states.
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