Newcastle man goes viral after overturning bus lane fine
It’s claimed thousands of people may have been wrongfully slapped with a fine for driving through a Newcastle bus lane.
An adjudicator has recently told the council to scrap several penalty charges for John Dobson Street, based on ‘inadequate signage’.
David Crawford-Emery posted his success on social media and it's been shared around 4000 times.
It comes after his girlfriend was snapped by the bus lane cameras on an afternoon in April.
After an appeal was rejected by the council he took it to a traffic penalty tribunal, where an adjudicator last month said it was one of a number of appeals in the same location that they had dealt with recently.
After examining the signage closely, Mackenzie Robinson said ‘The familiar blue and white bus lane signs at the actual stat of the bus gate are satisfactory. However, the yellow and black advance warning sigh further down the road is not sufficient on its own to give drivers proper advance warning’ noting it being set back from the pavement, containing detailed text ‘difficult for the driver to fully take in’, and assuming drivers are familiar with Ridley Place for access.
See decision below.
“They have allowed by appeal. On that basis, it has set a precedent.
“I think people feel assaulted by the city council. Perfectly law abiding citizen feel as though they’ve been entrapped by the city council, pushed into a situation where they allegedly commit an offence so that they city council can levy a fine on them. It’s nonsense.”
We’ve spoken with the council who insist that adjudicators decisions relate only to the case in which they are made and do not apply to other cases, which have their own individual circumstances.
To those that believe the signage was inadequate at the time that they were caught out by the bus lane cameras, it may be too late as an appeal must be made 28 days from when the letter arrives.
The council are currently reviewing all adjudicators’ decisions to see if further action should be taken.
During this review they found that 5,100 drivers were issues penalty charge notices during hours of darkness between February 23 and April 22 when the bus gate signs were not lit up. This amounts to approximately £117,500.
A spokesperson said:
“This happened because we were working to new Department for Transport regulations, which do not require lighting but which came into force later than we had anticipated.
“We know which penalty charge notices are affected by this and we will contact all drivers concerned to make a refund so there is no need for them to contact us.
“We are sorry for this and will seek to ensure that it does not happen again.”