Be aware; Be very aware, parking wardens can ticket a wide range of vehicle offences

Don’t park your car on a public road without a warrant of fitness, or registration, or with worn tyres or any other defect that might fail a warrant. And don’t park in a disability car park without displaying the Mobility Parking card.

If you do, and there’s a parking warden around, you will get a ticket.

That’s the message from the New Zealand Parking Association, representing parking authorities nationwide. It was issued following on from a Fair Go programme which featured someone complaining that he got a ticket for an unsafe tyre.

“The law requires us to do far more than just police roadside parking spaces,” said Colin Waite, national Chairman of the Association.

“We are in the front line of vehicle safety because traffic wardens are the people most likely to see unsafe, unwarrantable vehicles.”

“Fair Go’s complainant thought that because he had a Warrant of Fitness, he shouldn’t have got a ticket for an unsafe tyre. And he was typical of many New Zealanders who think, wrongly, that a warrant’s good for the next six months or year.

“It’s not. A vehicle becomes unwarrantable immediately it develops a fault that compromises its safety. That could happen two minutes after leaving the testing station; if say, a light blows, or a blinker fails, or a tyre bangs against a kerb and develops a split. It is immediately unwarrantable because it would not get a warrant in that state,” Mr Waite said.

Mr Waite said that parking authorities were constantly trying to educate the public about parking and safety issues, but made no apology for ticketing unsafe vehicles. “People are required to keep their cars registered and warrantable and that’s an issue of personal responsibility.”

“If people stop and think about it for a moment, they will realise that if we save one life by issuing tickets for defects in vehicles, then we have done an invaluable service.

“And a lot of people do thank us for pointing out defects they weren’t aware of – so the job does have its rewards,” Mr Waite said.

Mr Waite said that if a vehicle was unwarrantable there was a very good chance it would not be covered by insurance.

He said that parking wardens also took pleasure when they could effectively police disability parking.

“Some people can be incredibly selfish and we have no hesitation in ticketing them when they are. There’s a bumper sticker that says, “You’ve taken my car park, would you take
my disability as well?” We agree with that. If you haven’t got a disability, it’s grossly unfair to take a disability park and it may cost you $150 if you do,” Mr Waite said.

Mr Waite and the members of the NZ Parking Association support Fair Go’s campaign to ‘out’ drivers who use mobility parking spaces illegally.

ENDS

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