A POLICE officer caught on camera last month parked across two handicapped spaces a the Nicosia General Hospital claimed he did to so prevent other drivers parking there illegally.
Responding to publication of the photo, police said they had launched an investigation. A spokeswoman said there had been five complaints of non-handicapped cars parking in the handicapped spaces of the hospital that day.
An officer was sent to check it out and deal with the situation as well as handle some other matters in the area. He parked in the two handicapped spaces to prevent other non-handicapped drivers from using them and thus had saved them for drivers with disabilities.
Believing that the real issue was the great number of parking tickets given out for parking handicapped zones, the spokeswoman explained that there were 35 to 40 tickets given each month to non-disabled people who park in the handicapped spaces at the General Hospital.
“Since the beginning of the year until today there have been 10,045 traffic sign violations all over Cyprus,” she said
The spokeswoman explained that it was impossible to know how many of those offences were for non-disabled individuals parking in handicapped spaces.
“There isn’t a different offence for handicapped parking” she said. “Police report drivers based on the violation of traffic sign offences.”
“We have suggested there should be a specific, different offence” the representative said. “We have spoken to the Minister of Justice. The government is in the process of amending the law.”
via Policeman only parked in disabled spaces to stop others from doing it – Cyprus Mail.