Parking fine...treating hypo!!!

[Robinredbreast]

Today i received a £70 parking fine from a private company for overstaying by 20 minutes. My reason for overstaying and not moving my car within the time allowed is that I was legally not safe to drive as I was abiding by the DVLA regulations and treating my hypo to raise it to 5mmols and then waiting 45 minutes to ensure the safety of me, my baby and other drivers.

I've not contacted parking company as im waiting on a call back from citizens advice about this however if I don't pay within 8 days they'll increase the charge and take it further....so was I to risk all these lives and break the law???? Confused.....

Good luck @stellson, please let us know how you get on.

 

[Robinredbreast]

Good luck @stellson, please let us know how you get on.

I googled and found this useful article

http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/2272582.mum_told_to_prove_daughter_was_dying_in_fine_appeal

 

[FrancisS]

The DVLA says that if you have a hypo whilst driving you should stop in a safe place, remove the keys from the ignition and then move over to the passenger seat to treat the hypo, so the OP would be fine (as far as the Police are concerned) sitting in the car provided she wasn't in the drivers seat.

Good luck with getting the ticket reversed @stellson , do let us know how you get on.

I'm still unsure the OP would be fine if the hypo was spotted with a Libre device. DVLA says you must take a BG reading, the Libre uses interstitial fluid and are not as yet accepted by law. OK, a technicality maybe but those are the rules.

 

[noblehead]

I'm still unsure the OP would be fine if the hypo was spotted with a Libre device. DVLA says you must take a BG reading, the Libre uses interstitial fluid and are not as yet accepted by law. OK, a technicality maybe but those are the rules.

Yes that's correct,sure it says as much in the Libre literature @FrancisS It's always best to follow-up with a bg test.

 

[Jaylee]

I'm still unsure the OP would be fine if the hypo was spotted with a Libre device. DVLA says you must take a BG reading, the Libre uses interstitial fluid and are not as yet accepted by law. OK, a technicality maybe but those are the rules.

It's a shame the Libre wasn't used sooner. Spotting a downward trend in BS & possibly avoiding all this hassle.....?

 

[azure]

It's a shame the Libre wasn't used sooner. Spotting a downward trend in BS & possibly avoiding all this hassle.....?

Perhaps she did? The Libre is behind anyway.

BS is far more labile when you have a baby anyway. There's nothing to say that the OP did anything wrong at all.

 

[Jaylee]

Perhaps she did? The Libre is behind anyway.

BS is far more labile when you have a baby anyway. There's nothing to say that the OP did anything wrong at all.

The car wasn't driven.. The "right thing" in my book!

 

[MDHalstead]

Did you contact the parking company?

 

[DavidGrahamJones]

Did you contact the parking company?

I'm interested too. My experience with parking companies is that they can be quite reasonable. I even wrote a letter for a friend (her excuse being she couldn't spell) to say that closing the car door blew the ticket off the dash. She was let off but with a very strong hint that as she should have used the sticky back stuff to fix it, she wouldn't get away with it again. Fair enough! I think.

 

[sepuku]

I appealed one that I got at an airport whilst treating a hypo in the McDonalds car park. The fine was around £140 (it was a few years back now). I had to send evidence of my diabetes - which ended up being photocopies of my prescriptions and invoices of my pump consumables, along with explanations what each item on the prescription was.
Coincidentally, I ended up writing the response to them whilst I was hypo again, so it was "eloquently worded"...

 

[Vaper]

But her car was occupying a space that it was no longer entitled to occupy. It (she) had broken the contract that she had agreed to by parking there.

You are looking at it with the mindset of someone who wants to apply grey emotions and sympathy to a Yes/No issue.

I am looking at it from a Yes/No perspective, that does not have room for people to bend rules to suit their personal circumstances.

I really can not understand your view on this if she had been taken to hospital because she had entered a comma state would you see that differently, I'm mean she would still be occupying a space on which the contract had run out. I suspect you would see it different if you were in that situation. Common sense has to prevail at some point.she has a legal obligation as well as a moral one to not drive that car until she is above 5mmol. I would contact the company and appeal to their better sense of judgement.

 

[Northernboy72]

Private companies do not have the same power has the council or Police when it comes to parking. Somebody on here suggests you entered into a contract once you've parked your car. I would be asking for the full terms and conditions of the contract and on what situation a ticket would be waived . Unforeseen events happen .

 

[Birgit_Allport]

Today i received a £70 parking fine from a private company for overstaying by 20 minutes. My reason for overstaying and not moving my car within the time allowed is that I was legally not safe to drive as I was abiding by the DVLA regulations and treating my hypo to raise it to 5mmols and then waiting 45 minutes to ensure the safety of me, my baby and other drivers.

I've not contacted parking company as im waiting on a call back from citizens advice about this however if I don't pay within 8 days they'll increase the charge and take it further....so was I to risk all these lives and break the law???? Confused.....

My lawyer told me if I can proof it was a medical reason they should abolish it.
I would contact the company and who ever owns the car park too.

 

[sally and james]

I would be asking for the full terms and conditions of the contract and on what situation a ticket would be waived

Blimey, I hope I'm not behind you next time I'm queueing to get into a car park. Are we going to see long lines of lawyers in wigs stood at car park barriers to interpret and advise us!
Of course there is a contract, but any reasonable parking company (and from what some say above, there are reasonable parking companies, just as there was a reasonable and very apologetic bus company on another thread a day or two ago), will waive a fine, when approached in a polite and reasoned matter over something like a diabetic hypo.
Sally

 

[DavidGrahamJones]

I think Sally and James hit the nail on the head.

when approached in a polite and reasoned matter over something like a diabetic hypo.

Absolutely no good whatsoever wading in with all guns firing. Contact company first, with a nice letter. Then if they want to lay the law down . . . . . . . . . . .

So, until we hear what the outcome is, I'm optimistic of a happy outcome. That's not to say my optimism is always rewarded, but at least I will have kept my blood pressure down by not getting upset.

The next bit is totally off topic, sorry, I talk too much. LOL

I have an observation about the difference between the British and the Americans. We accept the law as it is, the Americans find a good lawyer who can interpret the law in a different way. I think it's called hermaneutics (the branch of knowledge that deals with interpretation). Interesting fact - the US has about 5% of the worlds population and something like 70% of the worlds lawyers. This is something I read a long time ago and googling it now comes up with similar numbers. My trivia for today.

 

[tinkerbell0771]

[QUOTE="stellson, post: 1394146,
This happened to me in Carlisle. I took the risk and did not pay and sent an appeal straight away to the private company. Explained as you have above and they replied saying on this occasion they would let me off but in future attract the attention of the car park attendant (if one ) to assist in either putting more money in the machine or to be witness if needed .

 

[Brunneria]

I really can not understand your view on this if she had been taken to hospital because she had entered a comma state would you see that differently, I'm mean she would still be occupying a space on which the contract had run out. I suspect you would see it different if you were in that situation. Common sense has to prevail at some point.she has a legal obligation as well as a moral one to not drive that car until she is above 5mmol. I would contact the company and appeal to their better sense of judgement.

Actually, I think it is you who have not read my posts properly.
Firstly as I stated several times I was playing Devils Advocate. Or did you miss that bit?

Secondly, I have said that by the car staying too long in a parking space, a fine is due on it. That is, according to the parking contract, a fact. Regardless of the reason. It is very simple.

Whether or not the parking firm enforces that fine is up to the car owner and the parking company - and any reasonable company will consider the appeal. That is also very simple.

I expect everyone reading this thread would like the original poster to avoid having to pay the fine. None of us want to pay fines for things situations like these. We are all waiting to see if the appeal is accepted. But, at the point when the 'ticket' was issued, the car had outstayed its time, and so the ticket automatically became due.

What comes after that, is down to human decisions and the good will of the parking company.

Regarding my personal (non Devil's Advocate views) I have spent years learning how to avoid hypos. Don't get it right all the time, and when I balls up, it is invariably my own fault. So yeah, I would probably pay the fine because I would know, deep in my heart of hearts that I was ultimately responsible for letting that hypo happen. Not everyone is in that postition, I recognise that. I would also weigh up the aggro of writing the letter, and the feeling of producing a 'the dog ate my homework' excuse, and just shrug.

- and just in case you missed it, the only personal opinion I have expressed here is in that last paragraph. So please don't assume otherwise.

 

[ME_Valentijn]

So yeah, I would probably pay the fine because I would know, deep in my heart of hearts that I was ultimately responsible for letting that hypo happen.

Seriously?

 

[JohnEGreen]

The most common type of parking ticket is a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) issued by local authorities if you park incorrectly or for too long on public land.

Private companies can issue parking tickets and may call them Parking Charge Notices, but they are not the same as the Penalty Charge Notice.

They are not backed up by law. Instead, they are invoices for a breach of contract.

If the car park operator wants to force you to pay, they will need to take you to the civil court, which is costly and time-consuming.

If the car park operator takes you to court and wins, you then have pay the costs in addition to the original charge. If you lose and still refuse to pay, you could find the judgment going on to your credit file and damaging your chances of borrowing or taking out contracts, such as for mobile phones.

• Landowners have a right to charge for and enforce parking, so pay up if you've broken the rules UNLESS you believe your ticket is exorbitant, disproportionate or there was inadequate signposting.
  
• Do not pay upfront at the time of the event and don't be intimidated to do so.
  
• As mentioned earlier, if the private parking operator is non-accredited and you simply get a ticket without a follow-up notice in the post, then you may be able to get away with it because they have no means of tracing you via the DVLA.
  
• If the car park operator is a member of one of the two trade bodies — the BPA or IPC — both have a code of practice for ticket issuing, a maximum charge limit and an appeals process.
  
• If the car park operator rejects your appeal and it’s a member of the British Parking Association (BPA), you then have 28 days to apply to the independent Parking on Private Land Appeals (POPLA) scheme

The above from here https://www.saga.co.uk/magazine/motoring/cars/using/2016/parking-fines-on-private-land

 

[Jaylee]

Seriously?

Hey! Some how. I get it... In my case. Just now & again I wanna drop the D & be a "normal."
Even it it was to cost me 70 quid for the breif privilege..

I'm sure you can at least get yer head round that!?