Warden targets bus with dead man

A traffic warden in Belfast issued a parking ticket to a minibus without realising that a person inside the vehicle was dead.

The incident occurred at a taxi rank outside Jury’s Inn hotel on Great Victoria St just after 8am last Tuesday.

Onlookers said a figure was slumped in a seat near the driver’s seat which was parked outside the hotel. The person was not moving and seemed to have slid down in the seat when the traffic warden passed and issued the ticket.

The PSNI has said that the death is not believed to be suspicious.

A spokesperson for the British franchise NSL, responsible for traffic wardens in Belfast, said: “As soon as the traffic attendant became aware of the circumstances, the Department [for Regional Development] was informed and immediately cancelled the PCN [penalty charge notice]. Our thoughts and sympathies are with the family of the person.”

One onlooker, quoted in the Belfast Telegraph, said a number of witnesses were upset by what they saw: “He [the warden] rapped the window of the minibus, and when the dead person didn’t move, he put a parking ticket on the minibus. People on the street and police at the scene were upset.