HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) — Christine Diaz was driving on the Sam Houston Tollway last December when she said the driver in front of her swerved to miss what appeared to be a green storage container in the middle of the road, causing her to swerve too.
“He just really jerked to the right real quick and I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, what’s in there,'” Diaz said. “My back end hit the wall and then it ricocheted and made my front end hit just on that side.
After Diaz’s vehicle came to a stop, she noticed she had lost a back tire. She said she called the number on the back of her EZ TAG for help. She says a Harris County Toll Road Authority wrecker and a Harris County Precinct 5 constable responded and towed her car off the Beltway.
Diaz said she was devastated her Mustang ended up being totaled.
“It’s the first car I fully paid off and had no payments on it for like a year and a half,” Diaz said.
She bought another car the next day and said she thought everything from the wreck was handled.
But four months later, on April 11, 2025, Diaz said she received a certified letter in the mail from the Harris County Office of Management and Budget.
The letter said she owed them $187.96 because she damaged the concrete barrier on the toll road and it needed to be power washed and repainted as a result of her crash.
“All for trying to miss debris in the road, that how long had that been there,” Diaz said.
13 Investigates got a copy of Diaz’s file from the crash from HCTRA. It shows the toll authority took photos of the damage and said Diaz’s car left black marks on a concrete barrier.
Data that 13 Investigates got from HCTRA shows they filed nearly 1,900 claims for damage to the toll roads from the beginning of 2024 to mid-June of this year.
Diaz’s damage was categorized as “scuffs and scrapes,” which was the top claim category, according to the data we received.
“If you allow scuffs and scrapes to remain, it can compromise the integrity because it makes it susceptible to moisture,” Tracy Jackson, assistant director of communications at HCTRA, said.
Data shows 1,248 of the nearly 1,900 claims filed were categorized as scuffs and scrapes. The next top categories are fleet damage, barrels, and delineators, which are the tall, skinny markers by the toll booths and guardrails.
When it comes to the cause of the damages, HCTRA data shows minor crashes, which is what Diaz’s claim fell under, was the top cause, followed by major crashes, DWI, vehicle fire, and agency assist.
Last year, HCTRA filed claims totaling $1.5 million against drivers for damage, according to data from the agency. During the first six months of this year, they have filed claims totaling $375,000 against drivers.
Jackson said if there’s damage that they can’t link to a specific driver, they are forced to absorb the cost.
“The only revenue that HCTRA gets is from tolls. There is no other revenue source, so if we were to not recoup damages done by private vehicles, then that would put an unfair burden on other motors,” Jackson said.
A 13 Investigates analysis of HCTRA data shows since 2024, the average monthly claim amount against a driver ranged from $313 some months to $3,194 in others.
ABC13 reached out to the Fort Bend County Toll Road Authority, who said they also charge drivers for damage to their roads.
TxDOT, which manages state highways and interstates like I-45, Highway 59, and I-10 among others, told us they have the ability to charge for scuffs and scrapes, but aren’t aware of any recent cases where they have.
“I think it’s maintenance because I pay my taxes for that. I pay out the nose to go through the tolls and it really is scuffs and scrapes,” Diaz said.
Jackson said the agency can’t always budget for future damages.
“We can’t budget for a collision that we don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said. “Depending on how often it happens that would force us to exceed that budget every single year and we don’t want to do that.”
Diaz said she wrote letters to HCTRA asking for more information about the charge for scuffs and scrapes, bringing up that there was debris in the road that caused her crash.
The county attorney’s office eventually sent her a letter with their intent to file a lawsuit if she didn’t pay the $187. Diaz said her insurance company ended up paying it, but that it was never about the money, it was the principle.
She said she pays to use the toll road and the damage HCTRA claims is from her swerving debris on the toll road.
“It seems like you’re double, triple, quadruple dipping, which doesn’t seem very fair,” Diaz said.
ABC13 asked HCTRA about debris, since that’s what Diaz says she hit.
Jackson said they have 13 crews that work 24/7, 365 days a year picking up debris. She said they don’t know how long the debris Diaz said she swerved was on the roadway.
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