NTSB calls to eliminate toll booths where you can pay cash after deadly crash

Ohio State Police/NTSB

This week, the National Transportation Safety Board called to eliminate manual toll payment lanes – where drivers can pay cash – from highway toll plazas after an SUV slowing down to change lanes was hit by a tractor-trailer, killing two people and injuring three.

The August 2024 wreck – at the Interstate 80 toll plaza near Swanton, Ohio, west of Toledo – could have been avoided if the highway only had electronic tolling and provided clearer information about toll payment options, the board said in a final report published Wednesday.

“Had the Swanton Toll Plaza been configured for fully electronic tolling, the crash would have been avoided,” the NTSB said.

In the crash, a Toyota SUV was traveling in the left of two high-speed toll lanes around 5:30 a.m. when the driver suddenly slowed down and merged right. She was going 15 mph in the right high-speed lane, preparing to cross an empty median to get to the manual lanes, according to the NTSB. Moments later, a tractor-trailer going the 70 mph speed limit slammed into the back of the vehicle. The slow-speed lanes the driver was trying to reach were marked at 10 mph.

“She tried to enter the low-speed toll booth access lanes at the last possible moment,” the NTSB wrote. “We found that the SUV driver was experiencing loss of situation awareness, likely as the result of fatigue, and that the truck driver did not have enough time to react to her lane incursion and rapid deceleration.”

The truck hit the SUV then a concrete barrier and both vehicles overturned. Two passengers in the Toyota were killed. Another SUV passenger and both drivers were seriously injured. The only person wearing a seat belt was the SUV driver, investigators said.

In the subsequent highway traffic backup there were two additional wrecks, including at least eight vehicles.

The high-speed lanes were equipped with transponder readers that could deduct tolls from drivers with in-car toll passes as well as license tag readers that could charge tolls to vehicles without transponders, NTSB investigators noted. License plate tolls could either be paid online or when the highway authority mailed the registered owner a bill, but the signs before the toll plaza said high-speed lanes were only for vehicles with an EZ-Pass transponder.

Investigators reviewing video of the toll plaza found more than 1,000 drivers made similar last-minute lane changes in the three weeks before the crash.

“The video review showed that unsafe merging and weaving of vehicles approaching the plaza is occurring consistently, more than twice per hour on average, and is clearly a problem beyond the SUV driver in this crash,” the NTSB said.

Investigators concluded that while hybrid toll plazas – which feature high-speed and slow-speed lanes – are safer than entirely manual ones, doing away with all the slow–speed toll booths entirely would reduce the need for lane changes and eliminate the resulting wrecks.

In recommendations to the Federal Highway Administration, Ohio and an association of toll owners and operators, the NTSB advocated for fully electronic tolling, citing the “inherent safety risk” of vehicles going at different speeds and changing lanes to pay tolls, as well as for better presentation of toll options to drivers.

俄亥俄州警察/国家运输安全委员会

本周，美国国家运输安全委员会呼吁取消高速公路收费站的人工收费车道（司机可以在那里用现金支付通行费），此前一辆SUV在减速变道时被一辆半挂卡车撞击，造成两人死亡，三人受伤。

委员会在周三发布的最终报告中表示，如果高速公路采用电子收费并提供更清晰的收费选项信息，那么2024年8月发生在俄亥俄州斯旺顿附近（托莱多以西）的80号州际公路收费站的事故是可以避免的。

“如果斯旺顿收费站采用全电子收费系统，这场事故就可以避免，”美国国家运输安全委员会表示。

事故发生时，一辆丰田SUV于凌晨5点30分左右行驶在两条收费高速公路车道的左侧，随后驾驶员突然减速并向右并入车道。据美国国家运输安全委员会（NTSB）称，当时她以15英里/小时的速度在右侧高速公路车道上行驶，准备穿过空旷的中央隔离带进入手动收费车道。几秒钟后，一辆以70英里/小时限速行驶的半挂卡车猛烈撞击了SUV的尾部。驾驶员试图进入的低速车道限速为10英里/小时。

美国国家运输安全委员会（NTSB）写道：“她试图在最后一刻驶入低速收费站入口车道。我们发现，这名SUV驾驶员可能由于疲劳而失去了对周围环境的感知，而卡车司机没有足够的时间对她驶入车道和快速减速做出反应。”

卡车撞上SUV后又撞上混凝土护栏，两车均翻车。丰田车内两名乘客当场死亡。SUV内另一名乘客和两名司机均受重伤。调查人员称，车内唯一系安全带的是SUV司机。

在随后的高速公路交通拥堵中，又发生了两起交通事故，涉及至少八辆车。

美国国家运输安全委员会（NTSB）的调查人员指出，高速车道配备了电子标签读取器，可以向安装了车载电子通行卡的驾驶员扣除通行费；同时还配备了车牌读取器，可以向未安装电子标签的车辆收取通行费。车牌通行费既可以在线支付，也可以在公路管理部门向车主邮寄账单时支付，但收费站前的标志牌明确标明，高速车道仅供安装了EZ-Pass电子标签的车辆通行。

调查人员查看收费站的视频后发现，在事故发生前的三周内，有 1000 多名司机在最后一刻进行了类似的变道。

“视频审查显示，车辆在接近广场时不安全地并线和穿梭的情况持续发生，平均每小时超过两次，这显然不仅仅是这起事故中SUV驾驶员的问题，”美国国家运输安全委员会表示。

调查人员得出结论，虽然混合收费站（设有高速车道和低速车道）比完全人工收费站更安全，但完全取消所有低速收费站将减少变道的需要，并消除由此造成的事故。

美国国家运输安全委员会 (NTSB) 向联邦公路管理局、俄亥俄州以及收费公路所有者和运营商协会提出建议，倡导全面电子收费，理由是车辆以不同速度行驶并变换车道支付通行费存在“固有的安全风险”，并且需要更好地向驾驶员展示收费选项。