After we talked to you about parking tickets a while ago, today we bring you a ticket-related story that seems straight out of catch-up shows: A driver was fined because his seat was broken.
Before you start to think that this situation occurred abroad, let us tell you that all of this took place on November 11, 2021, on the very Portuguese Estrada Regional 261-5, in Sines.
After the driver expressed his anger with the peculiar fine in a Facebook publication, the Poligrafo website investigated the veracity of the situation and the conclusion he reached may surprise you: the story is true and so is the fine.
Bad luck or overzealous?
As can be seen in the complaint filed on social networks, the administrative offense is the cause of the fine: "Vehicle circulation with the driver's seat not completely upholstered in the seat area due to wear and tear".
It may seem ridiculous, but this administrative offense is provided for in article 23 of the Highway Code Regulation (RCE).
This reads: "the driver's seat must be placed in such a way as to allow him to have good visibility and to handle all the controls with ease and without prejudice to continuous monitoring of the path (...) the driver's seat will be upholstered and adjustable longitudinally".
Also in that article, it is foreseen that this administrative offense is punishable by a fine in the amount of €7.48 to €37.41, the lowest amount being that which this unlucky driver had to pay.
Source: Polygraph