A GP had to quickly get to the patient during an emergency, so parking was not a priority for a while. However, she may have to pay a hefty fine for that.
Interesting matter from Amsterdam. Parking there is already a tricky issue and the municipality is not making it any easier this way. Merciless, that is the word that describes the situation well.
Doctor gets fined
Let’s start with the situation in question, which happened on July 30th. A general practitioner was called to a patient in Amsterdam due to a medical emergency. According to the doctor in question, ‘terminal care had to be provided’. The kind of situations where nothing matters except saving your patient, so to speak. Worrying about things like parking is then a secondary concern. That went wrong: only later, after the care had been provided, was the car registered to pay parking fees. During that time, a scan car already drove by and mercilessly registered that the GP had not paid. A fine of 64.50 euros appeared on the doctor’s desk.
Court case
The GP thought that fine was unjustified. With a fine opponent by her side, she challenged the fine in a lawsuit. She and the supporters of trafficboete.nl pointed out that there was an emergency situation and that paying parking fees was certainly the intention, but was done afterwards due to the hectic pace. Oh well, a bit of a human touch, that’s okay. However?
Rejected
That turns out to be different. The court firmly rules that the fine must simply be paid. No human touch, just pay. In the words of the court: “personal circumstances – however understandable they may be – cannot be taken into account in determining whether the additional tax assessment has been correctly imposed. This is only possible in the case of force majeure. Force majeure only applies in the event of a (life-threatening) emergency or emergency situation, as a result of which someone is absolutely, factually and physically prevented from paying parking tax. So someone must actually be unable to pay due to that situation.“
You have to make do with that
On the one hand, you can now have a tirade about human scale and empathy, but yes, the law is the law. Although a little more leniency for someone providing life-saving care would at least be a somewhat exceptional situation. In any case, the lack of empathy is what the GP’s supporters find most objectionable. (through RTL News and Jurisdiction)
This article Doctor gets fined during emergency, just has to pay first appeared on Autoblog.nl.
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