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There are several reasons your drivers license can be suspended–that have little to do with how safe a driver you are. If you don’t pay child support or traffic tickets, your state may suspend your license. But one of the most surprising reasons may be unpaid toll fees.

The most common penalty for unpaid tolls is financial. First, you’ll get more toll notices with the addition of late fees. Eventually, if the toll bridge or road is owned by a private company, the bill will most likely be passed off to a debt collection agency. But if the tolling entity is the state, you may actually get your license suspended without knowing it.

Many factors can cause your Driver's license to be suspended
Person being pulled over | Paul Biryukov via iStock

A Florida woman named Tiffany Santamaria missed all of her written warnings after a family member deleted her form the shared SunPass toll account. She was absolutely blindsided when pulled over for driving with a suspended license.

To make matters worse, her vehicle registration was out of date. The result was that Santamaria had to spend a night in jail before she could get things squared away. She figures the court fees, fines, and attorney ran her $10k.

So it’s a good idea to get your tolls paid down ASAP. It would take a lot for them to translate into a suspended drivers license. In Santamaria’s case, she had many many unpaid tolls she ignored for a long time. But the last thing you want is a driver’s license suspension that you don’t know about.

Next, learn more about all the penalties for unpaid tolls, or learn the difference between a suspended driver’s license and revoked driver’s license in the video below:

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