Alana Mallory’s relief after her injured son was rescued from a local trail quickly turned to frustration when she found a parking ticket on her windshield following her emergency.
Mallory’s vehicle was slapped with a $100 fine for “unauthorized parking.” The parking officer’s remarks on the ticket said that Mallory parked in “long-term parking” when she paid for “short-term parking.”
While waiting for her son, Cameron Downey, Mallory said she paid for parking along Esplanade Avenue near the resort, following the signage in the area. When she got the news he would be brought to the ambulance by boat, she moved her vehicle to the boat launch. While the boat launch is also along Esplanade Avenue, it falls under Zone 2 (long-term pay parking) rather than Zone 1 (short-term pay parking), where she’d initially parked.
“I am really frustrated,” Mallory told The Observer. “I’m disheartened because they don’t seem to be looking at the bigger picture.”
After she’d moved her vehicle, Mallory explained her situation to a nearby bylaw officer, not realizing they did not enforce parking.
“He told me he wouldn’t ticket me but maybe somebody else would,” she said. “In the heat of everything, I just saw a person of authority and I thought I would explain what’s going on. Obviously, Search and Rescue was parked all around. Obviously, there was a situation here.”
After discovering the ticket, Mallory spoke to an attending RCMP officer, who gave her a police file number for the rescue. She presented this along with other items of evidence to Burnaby-based Precise ParkLink, the company the village contracts to handle pay parking during the high season.
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Her appeal was denied.
“You failed to register your license plate number in the correct lot location in which your vehicle was parked,” Precise ParkLink told her in an email on Tuesday (Aug. 30) morning.
“If they’d run my plate, they were going to see that I paid, and the sign says ‘Pay on Esplanade,’” she added. “I took every step in the middle of just wanting to see if my son was okay.”
Representatives from Harrison Hot Springs said they had no knowledge of Mallory’s specific issue as Precise ParkLink handles both enforcement and appeal process. Whether or not there will be changes to the policy to allow concessions for emergency situations will likely be decided by council following the election.
Precise ParkLink has not responded to a request for comment.
With the appeal denied, Mallory isn’t sure what she will do next. What she does know for sure is although there is a map outlining the general parking zones, she believes there is inadequate signage to explain zone boundaries within the paid parking area.
“With everything else going on, I don’t really want to fight, but I think it is unfair,” Mallory said.
Despite some social media comments to the contrary, Mallory said this issue isn’t political for her; she’s just looking to raise awareness.
“If somebody else is in this situation, it could happen to them, too,” she added.
Downey suffered a severe ankle sprain while on Sandy Cove Trail northwest of Harrison Lake Lagoon, but Mallory said he is getting around in an air boot. Mallory had nothing but kind words to say about the first response team who made sure her son was safe.
“Everybody was amazing,” she added.
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