Traffic warden tried to ticket elderly driver slumped in car
A TRAFFIC warden was accused yesterday of writing a parking ticket for a car with an elderly man slumped unresponsive inside.
‘Disgusted’ witness Raoul Roman-Wilson said another passer-by had to call an ambulance while the warden stood by and did nothing.
Paramedics smashed the car’s window to check on the unnamed man.
Mr Roman-Wilson, 38, said: ‘I saw an old man, probably in his eighties, slumped in the car and the parking attendant still writing out a ticket.
‘I was thinking about breaking the window. I tried to find out if the parking attendant had rung an ambulance but he just kept quiet. The man was clearly suffering. He wasn’t talking and moving slowly.
‘We were saying to the warden, “Why didn’t you call an ambulance? Why don’t you do something?”.
‘The ambulance arrived a little while later and broke the window and checked on him.
‘I can’t believe he left him. The car was there for at least half an hour.
‘He could have approached the car and at least looked inside. It’s the fact that he didn’t do anything. The family arrived and mentioned that the man had Alzheimer’s. It was horrible.’
A South East Coast Ambulance Service spokesman said the man was treated at the scene in Folkstone, Kent, but was not taken to hospital.
Shepway District Council said: ‘Traffic enforcement officers are trained to call the emergency services if they find a driver in difficulty.
‘In this case, the officer had not seen the person in the car and by the time he had, an ambulance had already been called.
‘The parking enforcement officer did not issue a parking ticket and would not do so in a situation like this.’