Female Speaker1: Whether you are traveling by car, truck or motorcycle California drivers across the States, bridges and toll roads are supposed to pay their fair share. The surprising number of drivers are cheating the system. A clear coat spray called photo blocker is helping many drivers avoid tolls and costly tickets.
Shaun Wang: It gives a high gloss finish on your license plate and what that does is it over exposes to the light cameras.
Female Speaker1: Distributor Shaun Wang says that the company that makes photo blocker isn’t trying to help people skirt the law, instead it hopes to give drivers a fighting chance against what he says is faulty photo flash technology. Officials acknowledge many drivers are not purposely trying to cheat the system. They say in many cases trailer hitches or large license plate frames get in the way of toll cameras preventing authorities from sending those drivers a ticket. When drivers use photo blocker to obscure their license plates the Bay area toll authority showed us the blank images that result. Street law maker such as Southern California’s Mimi Walters says deliberately trying to evade a toll is illegal and she says its time to put the breaks on toll cheats.
Mimi Walters: Right now the toll roads down to my area are losing roughly half a million dollars a month by people evading tolls.
Female Speaker1: Walter says no one knows exactly how much money is lost due to photo blocker, but there is enough concern about it that a move is now under way in the State Legislature to ban it.
Mimi Walters: What we want to try to do is have people think twice before they actually use this spray because the alternative to using this spray and it not working is facing six months in jail or a $1000 fine.
Female Speaker1: The Assembly Appropriations Committee unanimously passed the bill and now its headed to the assembly floor. Drivers we talked with said they have mixed feelings about the proposed ban.
Female Speaker2: I think they are sure that people are going to find a way to get pass the new way.
Male Speaker1: All of us have to pay, I mean there is a reason of what we are paying is that keep up the bridge anyhow so why should you cheat it out?
Male Speaker1: Now if the proposed ban makes it to the Governor’s desk and he signs it into law, authorities could face an even bigger challenge since photo blocker is invisible to the naked eye, how would authorities can force the ban on something they are unable to see.
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