Kentucky Town Stops Billing Visiting Drivers for Crashes

A northern Kentucky city has stopped billing out-of-town drivers blamed for traffic crashes.

The Kentucky Enquirer reports that Erlanger officials say the billing policy has become “a public relations nightmare” and it isn’t bringing in as much as originally projected.

Erlanger Mayor Tom Rouse said the policy was “geared toward the out-of-state driver who causes a horrible wreck on the expressway.”

Instead, the city has gotten complaints from nonresidents getting billed an average of $250 for fender benders when their insurance companies refused to pay.

Police Chief Marc Fields said he thinks the city, which was the first in northern Kentucky to bill drivers “stuck our toe in the water first and found out it was pretty cold.”