Drivers ticketed under obscure parking regulations

CTV Montreal: Parking on a hill Tania Krywiak reports that the city of Montreal collected a record amount of fines last year.

Many drivers in Montreal are used to getting parking tickets, at least occasionally, for not feeding a meter for long enough or through being confused by 'No Parking' signs.

But many who parked on Clark St. last weekend are spitting mad about being ticketed for not following what they call a near-obsolete law.

Section 383 of the Quebec road code states that cars parked on a hill must have the emergency brake engaged and the wheels turned at an angle.

Not doing so netted many people a $56 fine this past weekend, including Katy Junca, who is contesting the ticket.

“We couldn’t really believe it. We thought it was a joke,” she said.

But it isn’t. Fopr safety reasons, cars are required to turn their wheels to the right when parking downhill, and to the left when parking uphill.

“It always a good idea to make it left turn as much as possible (when facing uphill) just in case if for any reason if it rolls back, the curb is going to stop your car,” said Mohammed Mostafalou of National Driving School.

Despite the bylaw existing for many years, it is rarely enforced. Montreal police say in this case, there was a special request following a recent accident.

“The commander of the station simply said, ‘Listen guys, in your spare time, if you could take a look, that's something to enforce,’” explained Andre Durocher of the Montreal police traffic division.

Durocher insists it isn’t a cash grab.

“We don't see any of that cash, so there is no reason to run after that,” he said.

Some of those who received tickets say they plan to contest, but lawyer Eric Lamontagne of S.O.S. ticket warned they think twice, because that kind of infraction is not easy to defend, and could cost more in the end.

“When you go to court and defend that ticket, if you lose your case, you will have some court fees… so you'll have from $52 to $142 for defending that ticket,” he said.

Last year Montreal police handed out $76 million in driving and parking infractions, which came from more than 508,511 offences within city limits. Officers handed out 60,582 more tickets across the island.

Parking Montreal employees fined drivers an additional $84 million with 1.2 million parking and traffic tickets.