PPA: Tickets given to cars along Walnut Street during coronavirus outbreak due to safety violations

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PPA: Tickets given to cars along Walnut Street during coronavirus outbreak due to safety violations

FOX 29's Dave Schratwieser reports.

The Philadelphia Parking Authority says they ticketed cars along Walnut Street Thursday afternoon because it constituted as a safety violation that could block emergency vehicles at rush hour.

The scene was the same up and down Walnut Street Thursday afternoon, car after car ticketed by the Philadelphia Parking Authority. Driver after driver confused, angry and frustrated.

Lou DiMichele is a contractor working on an asbestos removal project at 6th and Walnut. He parked his car in the loading zone thinking the PPA wasn’t ticketing cars during the coronsvirus pandemic.

"They told me there wasn't gonna be anybody writing tickets so I thought we were good here. Apparently, we're not," he said.

RELATED: City of Philadelphia orders non-essential businesses closed; PPA announces adjustments during COVID-19 pandemic

Christina Cedeno didn’t just get a ticket her car got towed. 

"So they're ticketing cars and then towing it," Cedeno explained.

The PPA said earlier this week said it would place a special emphasis on enforcing safety violations, but not to the exclusion of blatant violations that pose a threat to public order and safety such as double-parking, loading zone violations and blocking entranceways or crosswalks. They said motorists should park legally during this health crisis so as not to impede traffic flow or block emergency vehicle access. Some of the cars on Walnut were parked in loading zones or in lanes where parking ends at 3:30 p.m.

A spokesman for the PPA says the cars that were ticketed along Walnut Street after 3:30 p.m. constituted a safety violation that could block emergency vehicles at rush hour.

FULL COVERAGE: CORONAVIRUS

For information on the PPA's adjustments, please click here.

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