Stopping at a no-parking area to feed a baby does not shield you from being issued a ticket. This was explained to Reshma Chatoor yesterday as Magistrate Rajendra Rambachan ordered her to pay a fine of $1,200 for breaching a no-parking traffic sign. The incident took place on November 17, 2010, at La Retriette Road, San Fernando. Chatoor, who appeared in the San Fernando Traffic Court yesterday, told the magistrate she had just driven out of the gas station and her two-year-old daughter was crying.
She said: "I pulled aside to give her a bottle. I was seeing about my daughter. The child was crying. I can't drive like that." Chatoor also explained that she had almost hit a car before. The magistrate, however, said there were five exceptions to breaching a no-parking sign. These included loading or unloading, passengers entering or leaving a vehicle, if there is traffic stopping, if a car breaks down and if so directed by a police officer.
Chatoor said she told the policeman that her child was crying but he still issued her the ticket. The magistrate said under the regulations she still could not stop at a no-parking sign. He advised her to stop somewhere not in the area of a no-parking sign to comfort her baby. She was given a day to the pay the fine, failing which she would serve three months imprisonment with hard labour.