Gets lost and hit with two tolls - "scalped" in Oklahoma

Bill Walder of Sacramento CA is feeling scalped by the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority. He was touring Indian country on the Muskogee Turnpike southeast of Tulsa OK and got lost. At the Webbers Falls mainline plaza at the southern end of the Muskogee pike near I-40 he discovered he'd overshot his turnoff back up the pike. The toll collector collected his $1.25 toll and told him to do a U-turn. He did that and was immediately asked for another $1.25 toll in the other direction!

One toll he accepted for his mistake, he says, but a second toll was too much and he let fly at the toll collector with a stream of abuse which he calls his "two cents worth of first amendment rights."

Paying the "pinhead toll booth person" as he calls them he angrily drove away only to be pulled over soon afterwards by an Oklahoma state trooper. The trooper warned Walder he could be arrested for his abusive language to the toll collector.

Walder wrote about the incident for the Muskogee Daily Phoenix newspaper calling it "tollbooth extortion" on the Muskogee Turnpike.

COMMENT: The toll collectors in question were probably just doing their job collecting the two tolls, but the toll authority should have a rule that where a customer has to be turned around you only collect the one toll. And they should call it the Walder Rule.

Some toll authorities have a special ticket the toll collector hands a motorist for a no-pay toll back the other direction in circumstances like this where they have to pass the toll point again.

TOLLROADSnews 2008-04-21