Sleeping cab driver angry that traffic wardens left ticket without checking he was alive

Taxi driver Steve Woodwards has hit out at traffic wardens who slapped a parking ticket on his cab while he took a nap in a car park. Although Steve, 41, of Whitworth Road, admits he was in the wrong, he is furious that the warden did not check to make sure he was breathing before sticking the £50 notice on his windscreen and scarpering from the scene. “I just think it is absolutely ridiculous and laughable,” he said.

“This person had no consideration as to whether I was alive, I could have been in a coma or seriously ill,” he said. “I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t have expected to find a cab driver sleeping in a car park, so just a quick knock on the door to check if I was ok would have been nice. It is not like the space was needed as there was only one other car in the car park. Just a bit of decency wouldn’t have gone a miss.” Steve, who has been a taxi driver for nine years, had begun his shift with United Radio Cars at 3.45am on Friday morning.



He pulled over in the car park on Bath Road to take a quick nap shortly before 7am so that his driving was not being affected by his lethargy. He said: “When you start an early shift you can often start feeling a bit dozy, especially when you are just sat around and haven’t had a particularly brilliant night’s sleep beforehand. We’d had a busy morning on Friday so I pulled into a space for a quick drink and just dozed off for about 20 minutes.” The ticket issued to Steve states that the warden had observed him for three minutes before issuing the fine.

He said: “They must have been completely silent because when you are just dozing, the slightest noise can wake you up. I have a radio unit in the car which makes a bleeping noise to let me know I have a job to go to, and that always wakes me up. This just shows these traffic wardens aren’t concerned about people’s welfare, all they are interested in is the money. I’m going to pay the fine straight away and I’m not going to make a fuss because I know I was in the wrong and I should have paid for a ticket, but it is just the way they went about it that I have a problem with. I love my job, but I have never experienced anything quite this stupid before.”