Driving Infringement fine advice

whatmichaelsays

give_them_FA wrote: »

Thanks for your input buddy, but on this forum we abide by Martin Lewis' watchwords of "Help, not judgment".

Where is the judgement?

From your initial post, there is not enough information to determine whether or not you are being unfairly treated. You merely state "I drove into the yellow box because of the flow of London traffic", which means absolutely nothing.

How did the nature of this traffic force you into the yellow box?

give_them_FA

If you look more carefully you will find that I was not the one who received the PCN.

It was just that your comment sounded very much like "it was the OP's carelessness what is he complaining about".

If it was not actually intended that way then my apologies!

But as HO87 above says (and he is extremely knowledgeable in these matters) the enforcement of moving traffic violations by local councils is very often not lawful. After all their #1 priority is to raise cash. This is why our attitude is, don't just accept it, check that there isn't something wrong about it. This is a specialised advice forum not a general discussion one.

engakuis

Hi all,
Thank you for the information.
If I gotta pay then thats it, but I just wondered if it was worth challenging.
More info:
Okay so its rush hour, London, Monday AM around 7. The light is green and there is a junction. The cars at the other side of the junction begin to move, so I think that the traffic is moving, but once I am halfway over the box junction the car in front stops after a couple of feet and then stays there. By that time it is too late to reverse back so I have to keep going, then probably about 1/2 my car is in the box junction.
As the traffic appeared to be moving, then I don't think it was fair in rush hour traffic to fine me.
What do you think? Worth challenging?

The_Slithy_Tove

It's worth challenging, but probably not on the grounds you've just stated. Making progress without getting caught out in box junctions can be tricky, as you have found out, and you sometimes get caught out in the middle of a junction like that. Unfortunately rules are rules, and the box junction one is there for a purpose, rush hour or not.

However, there are a whole load of technicalities that may well allow you a getout. The best people to advise are on Pepipoo.com. Register there and start a new thread in the Council Parking Tickets & Clamping and Decriminalised Notices forum. You'll need to post up a scan/photo of the paperwork you've received (with personal details masked out), so the experts can pick holes in it. Many council tickets are not as robust as you may think, and often fall foul of the statute that allows them to issue the fines.

give_them_FA

Clearly if the car that stopped in front of you stopped unreasonably, and could and should have proceeded, then you were also forced to stop so you could argue that the situation was outside of your control.

Some anticipation is always required. Otherwise box junctions would totally clog up traffic, the opposite of what they are supposed to do.

To be safe each vehicle would have to wait until the preceding vehicle had completely cleared the box, before entering it. This is not the way it is meant to be as it would create a disastrous bottleneck at busy times.

Remember that Councils are just trying to make money and I doubt the clerk dealing with this has any sense!

engakuis

Thanks everyone for the advice.
I have done as advised and posted a comment on PePiPoo.