WATCH: TA marks space handicapped and tows car
02/05/2013 14:33
Security cameras show Tel Aviv municipality workers painting handicapped markings around parked vehicle and then towing it.
The Tel Aviv Municipality found itself in hot water on Tuesday, after a Facebook
post by a woman whose car was towed after city workers painted a handicapped
space around the vehicle went viral, becoming a mini-scandal and garnering
coverage across Israeli media outlets.
Security camera footage from a
store above the parking spot on Yehuda Halevi Street shows the car parked at a
legal blue parking spot, before city workers arrive and paint a handicapped spot
around the car, which is towed shortly thereafter.
The video was obtained
by the owner of the car, Hila Ben-Baruch, from the surveillance camera of the
store above the parking spot.
She complained to the Tel Aviv Municipality
with the video in hand and the fine against her was rescinded.
Ben-Baruch
titled her Facebook post, “To see and not believe,” explaining that she had
parked legally in a blueand- white-marked parking space on Sunday with the
proper area registration in an area she had parked in regularly for the last
year and a half.
When she left for work Sunday night, the car was no
longer there, she added.
“The big surprise that awaited me broke all the
records and I couldn’t believe my eyes – my car was not in the space I parked it
in and in its place was a parking space for the disabled.”
Ben-Baruch
added that in addition to being towed, at a cost of NIS 350, she was also fined
NIS 1,000 for parking in a handicapped spot, “the straw that broke the camel’s
back.”
In response to the incident, the municipality stated, “This was a
severe mistake and a case of incompetence that the city of Tel Aviv does not
accept – We apologize for the distress caused by the incident and we are
examining the case so that such incidents do not happen again in the
future.
“The contractor who arrived at the scene marked it as a
handicapped spot, but, contrary to procedure did not notify the city inspection
department.”
The city also stipulated that three days before the incident
a sign was posted at the site stating that from then on it had become a
handicapped parking spot.
“When the resident arrived at the city’s
parking department yesterday her fine was immediately canceled and she was not
required to pay the towing fee,” the municipality said.
Mayor Ron Huldai
also apologized to the driver on his Facebook page and said that he would make
sure that a similar mistake would not occur again.
Jerusalem Post staff
contributed to this report.