A MOTORIST has finally won her eight-month fight to have a £30 fine scrapped after she pulled into a bus lane to make way for two fire engines responding to an emergency call.
Glasgow City Council announced the decision after The Herald on Saturday reported that Dr Catherine Berry had received the notice in July after her car was flashed by an enforcement camera in Maryhill Road, close to the top of Queen Margaret Drive.
Ms Berry, 38, who lectures in cell engineering at Glasgow University, and whose plight won the support of the Fire Brigades Union, said: "I'm very pleased it's been scrapped. It's a shame that they've taken all this time to actually do it. They've known from the start that the fire engines were there, they've got a video of them being there."
The council said it would not be pursuing the fine – which had gone to an appeal hearing last month – but insisted Dr Berry's actions were still wrong. "In general, we will waive a fine if a driver moves into a bus lane to let an emergency vehicle past. However, that is not a licence to drive in a bus lane," a spokesman said.
"The driver in this instance was clearly in the wrong as she continued to drive along the bus lane instead of pulling over and stopping to allow the emergency vehicle to pass.
"By pulling into the bus lane, and continuing to drive along it despite emergency vehicles approaching behind her, she could have created an obstacle for them. We are cancelling the fine on this occasion but remind drivers to use common sense and observe the laws of the road."
However, an unrepentant Ms Berry said she would do the same again, adding: "It was common sense. The bus lane was completely empty, all the way as far back as I could see. There was nothing there at all."
She added that her case had highlighted the problem. She said: "I'm sure it has happened to other people and they have just paid without appealing against it, which is a shame."
Strathclyde Fire and Rescue said fining drivers who entered bus lanes to let fire engines pass was "crazy". It called for the law to be changed to protect the civic minded.
A Strathclyde Police spokesman cited the Highway Code, which encourages drivers to "take appropriate action".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article