- John Seth was not happy when he returned to his car after
making an early afternoon delivery in downtown Seattle last month and found
that he'd left his lights on.
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- He was even less pleased when a city parking-enforcement
officer handed him a $28 parking ticket. Not for being in a space illegally
or for having an expired meter ÷ it was for those headlights.
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- " 'You left your lights on,' " Seth recalled
the parking officer saying. 'We can cite for it, so we do.' "
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- Seattle's law on lights
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- Every vehicle shall be equipped with one (1) or more
lamps, which, when lighted, shall display a white or amber light visible
from a distance of one thousand feet (1,000') to the front of the vehicle,
and a red light visible from a distance of one thousand feet (1,000') to
the rear of the vehicle. The location of the lamp or lamps shall be such
that at least one (1) lamp or combination of lamps meeting the requirements
of this section is installed as near as practicable to the side of the
vehicle which is closest to passing traffic. (RCW 46.37.150(1)
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- Seattle Municipal Code, 11.82.300
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- "It's just insane." Seth said yesterday. "And
the worst part of it was she smiled when she gave it to me and said, 'Merry
Christmas.' "
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- Seth, a driver for the film company Film Stop, had no
idea he could get a parking ticket merely for forgetting to turn off his
lights ÷ and he's not alone. The handful of police, city and court
officials who could be reached yesterday said they'd never heard of anyone
being penalized for such a thing.
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- "Even I am not aware of a law" that makes leaving
lights on a citable offense, said Leo Poort, legal counsel to the Seattle
Police Department. "It'd be news to me."
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- On Seth's parking ticket, he's cited for "Lights,
parked vehicle." The part of the city code cited doesn't explicitly
say anything about leaving a parked car's lights on, but rather details
how a vehicle's lights need to be properly working (which Seth says his
were).
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- A city ordinance does make it illegal to leave a car
parked with the high beams on, and state law referred to in the city code
declares that headlights of parked cars "shall be depressed or dimmed."
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- Nevertheless, police spokeswoman Deanna Nollette said
she hadn't known that leaving car lights on was a parking infraction in
Seattle until she talked to a parking-enforcement supervisor yesterday.
She said she never issued citations under such circumstances when she was
working as a patrol officer, but did try to turn the lights off as a courtesy
if the car was unlocked.
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- She said it's not general practice within the department
to give tickets simply for forgetting about headlights, but it is within
an officer's discretion to do so. The supervisor said the officer who issued
Seth's citation was relatively new on the job and had talked to one of
her superiors after issuing the ticket because she'd had second thoughts
about it, according to Nollette.
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- The officer was told she could cancel the ticket and
was going to do just that, but Seth's car was already gone, Nollette said.
The parking-enforcement unit had been made aware of Seth's complaints and
was prepared to rescind his ticket but hadn't heard from him again, Nollette
said.
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- Seth couldn't be reached yesterday to comment on Nollette's
explanation, but said earlier that his employer would likely pay the ticket
because he got it on the job.
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- But he said that doesn't matter.
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- "I feel cheated," he said. "I've got better
things to do than to mess around with things like this."
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- He figured contesting it in court would be time-consuming,
and he was doubtful a magistrate would strike the fine completely anyway.
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- If there's any silver lining for Seth, it might be that
if he had gotten the ticket today, it would be $38 instead of $28 because
of the city's efforts to balance the 2003 budget.
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- Still, "For the life of me, I can't figure out what
the public-safety issue is," Seth said. "I mean, is a small child
going to walk too near to your lights and be vaporized?"
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- Janet Burkitt: 206-515-5689;
- jburkitt@seattletimes.com.
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- http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=tick
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