Legal Juice
Here are some highlights (from Barrie Segal’s book “The Parking Ticket Awards”):
Disabled driver Peter Stapleton was given a fine after stopping to re-attach his artificial leg which had fallen off while driving. After he refused to pay the fine the ticket’s cost spiralled to £465.
Truck driver Michael Collins was given a parking ticket after a burst water main had caused the road to collapse, leaving his 17-tonne truck stranded.
Nicky Clegg was driving with her 82-year-old mother and 11-year-son when a tree fell and crushed the front of the car. They all escaped without serious injury but when Ms Clegg returned to the mangled wreck the following day she found she had been issued with a parking ticket.
Robert McFarland’s horse was given a parking ticket under the heading, “Vehicle Description: Brown Horse”.
In July 2005, Dennis Williams was convicted at Carmarthen Magistrates’ Court for littering after throwing his parking ticket on the floor just as a street warden was walking past on litter patrol. The warden then promptly booked him for littering.
A Brooklyn priest was given a ticket after rushing to park outside a hospital to administer the last rites to a dying woman.
Similarly, David Holmes got a parking ticket outside a hospital when he drove himself there after having a heart attack.
A warden gave a ticket to the Dundee Utd disabled fans’ coach for parking outside the ground.
A young mother was given a ticket after pulling over because her three-year-old son was choking. Instead of helping her, a passing traffic warden just gave her a ticket. [Cold!]
Last year a parking attendant at a hotel car park was found to be charging people using the car park for the Snowdon Mountain Railway £4 if they spoke in English but only £2 if they spoke Welsh.
Funeral directors McKenzie and Millar were amazed to find their hearse given a £60 parking ticket by Edinburgh City Council as they waited to load a coffin into their vehicle.
A motorist who received a ticket in an NCP car park, despite returning to her car an hour early, was told the attendant had fined her because he had “reasonable cause to think she would stay longer than the four hours for which she had paid”.
Crazy. Here’s the article, which has just a few more.