Driver gets fined for illegal parking while in a traffic jam

An illegal parking means that the vehicle is stopped off the roadway. But that wasn’t the case for Christopher Barnham whose car was stuck in traffic. Despite that, he got a 110 pounds fine.

The man was in the car with his son in the middle of a traffic jam. As the cars didn’t seem to get moving soon, his son decided to go to the gas station nearby.

After several days, Barnham received a fine at home, with an image recorded by the cameras that monitor traffic. The camera interpreted the stationing and the opening of the door as parking.

“It’s entrapment. It is laughable that a passenger can’t get out of the car in stationary traffic. It was clear from the picture that there was a line of traffic in front of me, like there is there every morning. It is always stop-start traffic on that road and from the picture you can make out that the cars in front have their brake lights on. As far as I’m concerned I was prepared to go to prison instead of paying it,” Barnham said.

Fortunately for him, Havering Council analysed the incident and decided to cancel the fine.