Truck driver goes to great lengths to avoid paying highway toll charge

Highway 407 is the only toll road in Ontario, Canada. It runs north of the Greater Toronto area from Burlington to Clarington. The way it works is that motorists entering the highway at controlled access ramps will pass under a camera that records their licence plate. The plate will be recorded again when they exit the highway. The distance that they traveled will be calculated so that a computer generated toll bill can be sent to the registered owner of the vehicle. Frequent users can purchase a transponder and this gives them a reduced rate each time they use the route.Show more

Ever since Highway 407 opened in 1997, imaginative drivers have been devising ways to defeat the cameras and avoid paying the charges. Some motorists install licence plate covers that make their plate unreadable from an angle, yet they are transparent enough that the plate can be read from directly behind or in front. Others put dirt on their plates. Some even drive with the tail gate of the pickup open so that the overhead cameras can’t detect the plate.

This driver had a more subtle approach. It appears that he was trying to blame the weather because his licence plate was covered with snow. It was covered with a LOT of snow. It looked as if he had taken some time to pack on a layer of snow almost a foot thick. The problem was that there hadn’t been any snow falling in the area for several days. The other problem was that there was no snow anywhere else on his vehicle at all.

The Ontario Provincial Police patrol this section of highway and they do more than enforce the speed limit. They look for various offences relating to obscuring the licence plate or evading tolls. Anyone caught using any device or material to make their plate unreadable can face fines up to $500.

If you were a police officer seeing this vehicle, would you believe that the conveniently located snow was just a coincidence?