RickInOz

But in this instance it merits a conspicious place.

Many minor infractions, whlie not to be condoned, are of little importance. We have all exceeded the speed limit at some point, even if was unintentional, but despite the associated hysteria there is a reasonable amount of evidence including from the DoT that speed alone is not the sole cause of road deaths. Fortunately most of us have a healthy attitude that it is safe speed that is important not the absolute figure. After all, who would feel confident driving on a winding Lincolnshire road in the fog and rain at 60mph. This would be entirely legal, but you would have to be a complete cretin to do so.

To get to the point I’d like to share an event I witnessed in the car park at the Kingstand Fitness First last night. A black BMW (what a surprise!) pulled into a disabled bay. No problem so far. The driver then got out of the car and walked into the gym with no impediment. I was prepared to give the benefit of the doubt except I recognised the driver as a regular attendee at BodyPump. To confirm her able-bodied status there was no disabled badge on the dashboard. For the record there were a number of normal parking spaces available.

Now many people will probably be thinking: “So what?”, but on national highways this is a criminal act under the Road Traffic Act 1991. Unfortunately on private property at best you could file a civil tort. However it is not the criminality that bothers me, it was the fundamentally selfish attitude displayed. The UK seems to be on a progressive decline towards moral bankruptcy. We have all got so wrapped up in our own lives that we are oblivious to the common decency. There is also reasonable evidence that those illegally parking in a disabled spot are likely to be guilty of other offences. I know this rant seems like a triviality but is the symbolism that is important rather than the individual act.

Since there is little we can do about such people we should take the piss out of them instead. I found the following guilt-trip notice:

On a disabled rights website. You can download the full version here. Print out a few copies and distribute appropriately!