A man who stopped his car on the road for a few seconds to let his passenger wife out has a message for Richmond drivers.
Christopher Lee is letting other motorists know there’s a chance they will be ticketed if they try to do the same thing in the city, even if it’s for a brief moment.
Lee was issued the $70 ticket in July by a City of Richmond bylaw officer, after he stopped on Saba Road – near Westminster Highway – to let his wife out as near as possible to their acupuncturist’s clinic.
He told the Richmond News he thought the driver of the pick-up truck parked right outside the clinic was getting ready to leave, so he stopped to let him out.
However, the “driver” in question turned out to be a city bylaw officer, who “popped out” from behind the truck and took a photo of Lee’s wife, Priscilla, getting out of their SUV.
Feeling mightily aggrieved – given that it was only a few seconds and that both he and wife can’t walk too far due to being injured in a motor vehicle accident – Lee refused to pay the ticket and took the matter to Richmond Provincial Court.
“I couldn’t believe it when I got the ticket. I didn’t even know this bylaw existed," said Lee.
“I honestly thought the pick-up truck was about to leave, that’s why I stopped. But we were so close to (the clinic) my wife just got out, as it was safe to do so.”
However, the court didn’t see it his way and it was determined a couple of weeks ago that there was no evidence presented to suggest the vehicle did not violate the traffic bylaw, which states that stopping a vehicle in the travelled portion of a road and obstructing traffic is prohibited.
A spokesperson for the City of Richmond said that the court’s adjudicator, in making their ruling, said the “bylaw does not concern itself with why a vehicle may have been stopped, but whether or not the vehicle actually was stopped in contravention of the bylaw.”
Lee felt the ticket – which is now $95 after he lost the court decision – was totally unnecessary and a little common sense could have been applied.
“At no point did I step out of the car,” added Lee.
“Just as important, the pictures show that the bylaw officer did step out of the front of the truck, which led me to believe that he was the owner of the truck and was about to leave. It's unfortunate that we have had such an experience.”
