COLONIAL HEIGHTS, Va. (WRIC) — Law enforcement agencies in Henrico County and Colonial Heights are warning drivers to pay closer attention to fire lanes and to avoid parking in them after giving out hundreds of tickets.
Colonial Heights is cracking down on illegally parked vehicles in fire lanes. City council adopted an ordinance in September of last year, allowing certain fire personnel to issue citations, in addition to police officers and sheriff’s deputies.
The violation causes problems for drivers and pedestrians trying to navigate fire lanes and it could possibly delay emergency response times.
“They’re still doing it on a daily occurrence. We’re still seeing it morning, evening and night,”
said James Jennings, Colonial Heights’ deputy fire marshal.
Since the new law took effect on Oct. 1, Jennings said he hasn’t seen much of a change. A total of 547 tickets have been issued by the city, 215 of those came from the fire department.
“There’s days that I feel like it’s making a difference, and then there’s days that I go out and I don’t think anything’s changed because you’ll ride around the city and still see numerous people parked in the fire lane,” Jennings said.
Jennings said that, despite the risk of a $50 fine, drivers are still ignoring the signs and street markings.
“‘Hey, I just got to run into that store for a second.’ Well, that second turns into ten minutes and you think it’s a second, but ten minutes have gone by and now you’re there for longer than you thought,” Jennings said. “It not only backs up the flow of traffic coming into other businesses, but it could impede on an emergency.”
The Henrico County Division of Police said that, last year, officers issued about 550 citations to drivers who parked in fire lanes.
Authorities remind offenders that, in addition to a ticket, they could also face a class one misdemeanor and a hefty towing bill for the parking violation.
