Traffic warden tickets man as wife is dying

This is London
Nov. 19, 2006

A driver who pulled over to park the car when his wife had a fatal heart attack has been booked by traffic wardens.

The woman, in her seventies, had a cardiac arrest on her way to St John's Wood Medical Practice in north London.

Her husband, who was taking her to a doctor's appointment, was forced to stop on a yellow line outside the surgery as he called 999. He went with his dying wife in the ambulance as she was rushed to St Mary's Hospital in Paddington.

But the woman, who has not been named, was dead on arrival.

Her devastated husband returned to the surgery in tears to find he had been given a £50 parking ticket.

Wardens acted despite doctors displaying a notice in his windscreen explaining the emergency.

One local businessman said he pleaded with the warden. Gary Mulreay, who owns St John's Barbers a few doors away, said: "I was there to help get this poor woman out of the car and to administer CPR. When the wardens came along we told them what had happened.

"But one issued a ticket anyway. I was absolutely stunned. He actually said, 'It's not my problem, I've got a job to do'."

A spokesman for Westminster council, which employs the NCP firm of wardens, said the ticket had now been cancelled.












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