news, local-news

PARKING your car with pinpoint accuracy can often be a difficult task, but drivers across the city are being urged to take a few extra seconds to make sure they get it just right. Wagga resident Joy Kelly was slapped with a $99 fine on Friday afternoon for not standing her vehicle wholly in a marked parking space in the Myer carpark and has warned other drivers to be aware of fines for parking incorrectly. “I was blown away by it ... I’m a pensioner and that’s a big whack out of a girl’s pension,” Mrs Kelly said. The 82-year-old had driven through two car spaces to allow her to exit the park with ease and was booked because the rear of her vehicle was over the back line. - Click through the carousel above to see the image of Mrs Kelly's incorrect parking, as provided by Wagga City Council. Mrs Kelly drives an older model Ford Fairlaine, which she admitted was a longer vehicle, and said although there were no cars around her to “line up with” at the time, she believed she was parked correctly. “I always shop at Myer and I always try and think of (people) next to me,” she said. “You try to get in the lines for courtesy ... I do my best. “I want everyone to watch out, we’re not aware of it ... we all know the two-hour parking rule (but) I’ve never heard of parking rules for lines,” she said. Mrs Kelly said she didn’t even think to check if the back of her car was in the line and wasn’t sure just how far over it was because she first noticed the ticket after arriving home two hours later. She claimed the situation could have been worse because the parking officer placed the ticket under the windscreen wiper on the passenger side of the vehicle where it could have blown away, landing her in more hot water for an unpaid fine. Wagga City Council confirmed that infringement notices are placed on the passenger side, for the safety of rangers. “It’s a driver responsibility to ensure they are parked within the designated marked parking bays,” a council spokesman said. Council said it enforced the regulations as set out under the Local Government Act 1993 where a person must not cause a vehicle to be parked so that any part of it is on or across any line, stud, pad, plate or other mark defining the space.

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