Shane Hardin quit going to necessary cardiac rehab because his tollway bills were piling up.
Hardin, a 46-year-old construction manager and father of two teenage girls who lives in Keller, rushed into emergency quintuple bypass surgery on Nov. 17, 2021, after a routine angiogram revealed several arteries clogged by at least 70% and one by 90%.
Once home, immediately after surgery, his routine included harried early morning drives on the TEXpress lanes to cardiac rehab in Euless three times a week. Then he had to head to work in Flower Mound.
The cost of the rehab trips on Interstate 35W to Interstate 820 to State Highway 121 North varied, depending on how congested the free lanes were, Hardin recalled. But he wanted to make it to rehab and still make it to work on time. He admits he was confused by the changing costs on signs ― sometimes they seemed to flip from one moment to the next.
After several months of rehab trips from late November to April, he reviewed his credit card statement and was shocked. He calculated that he had been charged $750 in tolls.
That meant his cardiac visits shot up to more than $3,500, including tolls, rehab and doctor appointments.
“Oh my God, that’s like $40 to $50 a day on tolls,” he said.
Hardin counts himself fortunate that he paid his tolls with a credit card. Had his toll tag been connected to his family’s checking account, it might have wiped them out.