It’s not every day that the case of a driving fine makes headlines, but today is it. Call it a case of technology gone unchecked or a hilarious “I wasn’t even there”-type of thing, but this must be peak incompetence in terms of driving fines.
Last month, a couple from Dorking, Surrey, UK, received a £90 ($124) fine in the mail for the alleged infraction of driving in the bus lane. In June this year, the incident supposedly happened in Bath, some 120 miles (193 km) off. So far, so good: the notice even included a photo snapped by CCTV from a nearby bus station.
The biggest issue with the notice was that there was no car in the picture, let alone David Knight’s Volkswagen bus. Nor had he and his wife traveled to Bath last summer or, for that matter, been anywhere on the day they allegedly drove where they shouldn’t have. Instead, the photo showed a middle-aged masked woman walking in the bus lane, and she was wearing a shirt that read “Knitter.”
The script of the shirt was what led to the snafu, the Knights tell the BBC, mostly due to the fact that it was partially obscured. The license plate on their VW van reads “KN19TER,” the closest thing to David’s nickname, “Knighter.” The image was processed by a computer and, because no one at Bath and North East Somerset Council (BANES) looked at it, a fine notice was sent to the holder of a similarly spelled vanity plate.
The Knights called BANES and were initially told they had to pay the fine. Then, as they explained the situation and how the CCTV snap showed a woman walking and not their car driving in the bus lane, they got uncontrollable laughter as a reaction and the promise that the fine would be canceled. “There was no way I was going to pay for a woman walking in a bus lane with a funny T-shirt on,” Mrs. Knight says. Indeed.
The biggest issue with the notice was that there was no car in the picture, let alone David Knight’s Volkswagen bus. Nor had he and his wife traveled to Bath last summer or, for that matter, been anywhere on the day they allegedly drove where they shouldn’t have. Instead, the photo showed a middle-aged masked woman walking in the bus lane, and she was wearing a shirt that read “Knitter.”
The script of the shirt was what led to the snafu, the Knights tell the BBC, mostly due to the fact that it was partially obscured. The license plate on their VW van reads “KN19TER,” the closest thing to David’s nickname, “Knighter.” The image was processed by a computer and, because no one at Bath and North East Somerset Council (BANES) looked at it, a fine notice was sent to the holder of a similarly spelled vanity plate.
The Knights called BANES and were initially told they had to pay the fine. Then, as they explained the situation and how the CCTV snap showed a woman walking and not their car driving in the bus lane, they got uncontrollable laughter as a reaction and the promise that the fine would be canceled. “There was no way I was going to pay for a woman walking in a bus lane with a funny T-shirt on,” Mrs. Knight says. Indeed.