Toll sensors left unplugged on California highway cost agency $1.8 million, audit finds

Toll sensors left disconnected from a system that’s “literally falling apart” cost a San Diego government agency $1.8 million in uncollected tolls, California auditors found.

“It wasn’t that just they got unplugged,” said independent auditor Mary Khoshmashrab, The San Diego Union Tribune reported. “It was that they got unplugged and they went unnoticed as far as the revenue impact of that.”

Four of the 42 sensors along Highway 125 were left unplugged for three months last year, KFMB reported. The issue came to light following a tip to the independent auditor.

The sensors “were actually the ones that were counting the cars and making sure we were collecting tolls,” said Ray Major with the San Diego Association of Governments, which operates the toll system, inewsource reported.

Major said the highway’s toll system, which was due to be replaced in 2007, is ““literally falling apart,” The San Diego Union Tribune reported.

“And so, what they’re doing is cannibalizing certain points, pay points and taking parts and trying to get other ones working,” Major told KFMB. The Highway 125 toll system is set to be replaced in May.

“I take full responsibility for any screwup like this,” Hasan Ikhrata, chief executive officer of the agency, said at a February audit meeting, insewsource reported.

He said the agency will seek damages from a contractor working on the toll system, KFMB reported.