End “Stop and Seize”

TARRYTOWN- Today Assemblyman Abinanti (D-Greenburgh/Mount Pleasant) called for an end to the “Stop and Seize,” policy which the State is applying to those accused of failing to pay tolls incurred on New York’s “cashless” toll bridges. He issued the following statement.

“I have learned about several instances where drivers have been stopped by NY police while crossing a NY bridge, removed from their cars, had their cars confiscated and been left standing by the side of the road possibly endangering their safety.

Today the Journal News graphically reported on one such incident. A family returning to the suburbs from the airport in a car loaded with luggage was stopped on the RFK Bridge. State and other police had the car towed and left the four family members and their luggage on the street in the Bronx. The other incidents follow a similar pattern.

All of these incidents were the result of failures of the chaotic cashless tolling system. Some drivers claim they never received notices; others say that they paid all that was due. It doesn’t matter!

New York’s system is too quick to escalate penalties, too quick to suspend registrations, too slow to lift suspensions and impossible to timely correct errors.

Removing families and towing their cars is not the way a civilized society treats its citizens. This is not the New York way! It must stop immediately.”