Ohioans say they’re pursued for paid-off fines 俄亥俄州民說他們被追討已付清的罰金

 ◎張沛元
Some motorists are complaining that old traffic fines they already paid to one Ohio county are coming back to haunt them.
部分駕駛人抱怨，他們早就付給俄亥俄州一個郡的交通罰金，如今又回過頭來糾纏不休。
About 1,000 people have contacted officials in southeast Ohio’s Hocking County this week to say they’ve heard from a collection agency about tickets already resolved, in some cases as far back as 20 years ago.
大 約1000人本週已與俄亥俄州東南部哈金郡的官員聯繫，表示他們已從一個收款單位得知，有關罰單的問題已經解決。這些罰單中有些甚至是20年前的舊帳。
Court Clerk Michele Bell said that a glitch that occurred in 1999, when the court changed data systems. The problem surfaced amid the county’s ongoing efforts to recover outstanding debts and bolster its budget.
法 院書記蜜雪兒．貝爾表示，1999年法庭更改資料系統時，發生了差錯。此一問題浮現的時機，正值該郡持續努力催討未付帳款與支撐其預算。
About 10,000 debt-collection letters went out last week. Bell says she’s not sure how many were sent by mistake and how many went to people who still owe money.
上週大約發出1萬封討債信。貝爾說，她不確定有多少封是誤發，有多少封是寄給如今仍欠繳的人。
新聞辭典
Ohioan：名詞，俄亥俄州民。形容詞，俄亥俄州的，俄亥俄州民的。 New York（紐約）加er即為New Yorker（紐約人），或Japan（日本）加ese 即為Japanese（日本人），但並不是所有的地名直接加上er或ese就等於該地之人，仍需視該地名拼法而定。例如，Californian，加州 人；Hawaiian，夏威夷人；Bostonian，波士頓人。
haunted：形容詞，鬧鬼的；煩惱的。haunt，動詞，鬼魂出沒； 縈繞心頭。例句：The newly-wed couple were desperate to leave their new house that they believe is haunted by a lot of ghosts.（那對新婚夫妻趕忙離開那棟被他們認為鬧鬼的新居。）
as far as：片語，（1）遠到…；（2）到…程度。例句：As far as I know, The boss isn’t attending the meeting.（就我所知，老闆不會出席這場會議。）