Woman gets parking ticket while giving first aid

A GOOD Samaritan has been slapped with a parking fine after stopping to give first aid to a woman who collapsed in the street.

Lesley Mair, 43, abandoned her car in a disabled parking bay on Portobello High Street as she rushed to the seemingly lifeless body of a young woman sprawled face down on the pavement.

But after helping her recover in a nearby bank, Ms Mair returned to her car to find she had been booked for illegal parking. The credit control manager was driving to work at a book wholesalers in Leith when she spotted the woman “out cold”. She pulled over and raced to help.

She said: “I thought the girl was dead at first but after a while she regained 
consciousness and I think she’d had a seizure or blacked out.

“Obviously I panicked when I saw that and parked up quickly to get to her. At the same time two people arrived to help and when she came round she was a bit groggy and dazed. She was complaining of stomach pains so we took her into the Bank of Scotland to keep her warm and called an ambulance.

“It was while we were in there I noticed I was getting a parking ticket – it had been a matter of moments.

“My only concern was for the lady on the street, I wasn’t looking where I was parking.”

Bosses at NSL, which manages the city’s parking attendants, said they were “entirely satisfied” that their attendant acted in a “sympathetic and professional way”.

But Ms Mair, from Musselburgh, branded the affair “yet another example of an over-zealous parking attendant” who was “chasing commission”.

She said: “The parking attendant must have looked over and seen the commotion going on. I am utterly appalled by the lack of consideration given by this man who, when I told him the situation, just shrugged his shoulders and turned his back on me.”

It is understood the ill woman was taken to hospital by paramedics. Her condition is not known.

Onlookers said they had been left stunned as the parking attendant moved in on the car.

A shopworker who had a clear view of the incident said: “We saw the woman being helped by some people and then being taken into the bank. Next thing there was a parking attendant looking at the cars and he started writing a ticket. It’s unbelievable he could do that.”

Councillor Lesley Hinds, transport convener, said: “If Ms Mair was assisting with a medical emergency, we will of course cancel the ticket when she raises it with us.

“We will also take her comments regarding the conduct of the parking attendant seriously and will investigate the matter with NSL.”

DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION

Many drivers have fallen foul of parking regulations in bizarre circumstances.

In November 2002, Scotland’s rugby players were left stunned after a parking attendant slapped their bus with a ticket at the MacDonald Holyrood Hotel.

Frances Hawarden found herself bombarded with tickets in May 2007 after leaving her car outside her own home in Merchiston while on holiday, despite having a resident’s permit. And in 2003, a hearse was ticketed in Great Junction Street as it waited to go to a funeral.