Woman angry after friend gets fined after drinking and not driving
Jan 27, 2010 - 08:35 PM
By Kristen Calis
PICKERING -- A Pickering resident is upset her house guest received a parking ticket recently after choosing to spend the night instead of drinking and driving.
"I insisted he stay over because he lives in Richmond Hill," Marilyn Robello said in a phone interview, adding she's lost a family member to drunk driving and has strict rules against it.
Since she knows there's no parking on the street in Pickering from 2 to 5 a.m. between Dec. 1 and March 31 for snow clearing purposes, she tried to see if her neighbour could take an extra car in their driveway since Ms. Robello had no room. When no one came to the door, she chose to leave her friend's car on the street since she felt it unsafe that he drive home after a couple glasses of wine.
The next morning, a $30 ticket was on her guest's windshield.
"I felt like 'oh my God, I did something wrong by telling him he wasn't supposed to go home and drink and drive,'" she said.
She chose to contact the City to see what it could do to help the situation. After all, she felt she'd done a good deed by asking her friend to stay instead of driving home.
Bylaw officials commended her friend's choice to not drink and drive in an e-mail, but said since the bylaw was broken, they couldn't cancel the ticket, but offered to reduce the charge to $15.
They also outlined how to arrange for an exception to the rule in advance if residents expect guests to spend the night. That would require e-mailing manager of bylaw services, Kim Thompson, at
kthompson@cityofpickering.com and including the vehicle's make, model, colour, licence plate number and the reason for the request.
But Ms. Robello pointed out not all visits are planned.
"What does someone do in a case like that?" she said.
Although the City prefers arrangements be made in advance, Ms. Thompson said in an e-mail, there is an after-hours number to call in the case of last-minute requests. As long as snow-clearing operations are not required, cars should be fine parked overnight in this case. They should e-mail
by-law@cityofpickering.com or call 905-683-7575.
Ms. Robello ended up paying the fine in full since the ordeal wasn't about getting a reduced ticket, she said, but the principle of the matter.
VISIT: cityofpickering.com
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