An NHS nurse who works with Great Ormond Street says she was hit with a hefty £70 parking fine after she stopped her car to help an injured pensioner by a beach
An NHS nurse was slapped with a parking ticket after she pulled over to give a pensioner medical assistance. Helen Sellers treated a man lying on the ground but was still charged a hefty £70 after a traffic warden placed a parking ticket on her car mere yards away.
Officials told Helen, 49, there was no evidence of her good deed when she challenged the fine. As a result, Helen, a nurse with Great Ormond Street Hospital, is appealing for witnesses to help her in her case.
The children’s nurse slammed Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council for a “lack of compassion and common sense”. Helen, originally from Farnborough in Hampshire, was visiting friends in the Mudeford parish of Christchurch in Dorset when the incident occurred.
During the incident, she stopped her Ford Fiesta on a single yellow line and rushed over to help the man, who had collapsed on some steps close to a beach. He was around 80 yards from her parked car and had a suspected broken leg after falling from his bike.
A member of the man’s family the came to pick him up and take him to hospital, but not before Helen had waited with him for the best part of an hour to make sure he was comfortable, she said.
Despite a crowd of people around the incident, the traffic warden said they didn’t see the commotion. Helen said she did not look at her car during the incident, BCPS reported.
She said: “I could see a man on the ground and with my nurse’s training I sort of went into autopilot. It could have been an imminent emergency. I was mindful of not blocking any driveways and pulling over safely, but beyond that I didn’t really think about the car.
“It was only about 80 metres away. I can’t understand how the traffic warden wouldn’t have seen the crowd and the man on the floor. I was probably with him less than an hour, giving him reassurance, he was in a lot of pain, I suspected it was a fracture. Then somebody took him to hospital.
“When I got back to my car and saw the ticket I thought ‘oh really?’ but then I just thought it’s annoying and that I would appeal it and explain the situation. I went through all three stages of appeal and thought surely somebody will have a bit of compassion and common sense.
“I’m a registered nurse, I showed them my card and it’s in my code of conduct to help people where I can but they just said I needed proof. I’m baffled by it. It’s not the cost of the parking ticket, it’s more the principle and the fact I’ve gone to help a member of the public.
“I was doing a good deed. It’s going to disincentivise members of the public from helping other people. Ok in this instance it wasn’t life-threatening, but it could have been.
“It’s not a very compassionate approach by the council. I don’t understand the logic, they must just see pound signs. If a member of the public needs assistance, I’m going to stop and help if it’s safe to do so. I wouldn’t bat an eyelid, if the same circumstances happened again, I would do exactly the same again.”
Councillor Richard Herrett, portfolio holder for destination, leisure and commercial operations at BCP Council, said: “This decision has been reviewed by an independent tribunal (Traffic Penalty Tribunal) which found there was insufficient evidence to overturn the penalty charge notice. Our team followed the statutory processes when issuing this ticket – with no knowledge of the circumstances – however I recognise, and understand, the questions subsequently raised by Helen.
“Once a ticket has been issued, the council goes through a defined legal process where motorists are invited to provide evidence of the exceptional circumstances. If this evidence can now be provided, then our team would be happy to look at this case further.”
