Family sues over parking ticket death

Relatives of a man who suffered a heart attack and died while he was being given a parking ticket have filed a claim against New York, claiming a traffic warden left without calling an ambulance.

Onofrio Avvinti, a 61-year-old Sicilian immigrant, was double parked outside a grocery store Brooklyn when he saw a warden writing him a ticket.

Avvinti got out of the car and talked to the warden, and then got back into the car and began clutching his chest, said his lawyer Sanford Rubenstein.

The warden issued the £65 ticket and left without calling emergency, he said.

Avvinti’s family filed a notice of claim – a precursor to a death lawsuit - against the city, claiming that he might not have died if an ambulance had arrived sooner.

The police department disputed Rubenstein’s account.

“There is no evidence that the traffic warden were aware of the person’s medical condition, and witnesses dispute his attorney’s version of events,” said spokesman Paul Browne.