30 March 2011

Mexico City drivers face 'ghost' fines

More than 13,000 drivers have challenged tickets, claiming they did not commit infraction

By Bronson Pettitt

Mexico Weekly / March 30, 2011

Thousands of Mexico City residents are complaining they have been mistakenly slapped with baseless or arbitrary driving fines.

So far in March, 13,028 drivers have challenged fines they say are incorrect, Reforma reported Wednesday.

The Federal District Public Security Secretariat (SSP-DF) says 12,886 of these fines were in fact valid, and only 142 (0.91 percent) were wrongly issued, El Universal reported Wednesday.

Drivers who feel they were unfairly fined have gone to SSP-DF offices, where in many cases city officials search on a database and pull up a photograph of the driver speeding or having illegally parked, authorities told Excélsior.

But that is not always the case.

Reforma published an article Wednesday detailing the story of a taxi driver named Bernardo Olvera, who discovered he had been fined for making an illegal left turn across a Metrobús lane in southwestern Mexico City. The only problem is that there is no Metrobús lane in that part of the city.

Olvera must first pay the 2,298-peso fine ($192) before he can challenge it in administrative court.

Other drivers told Reforma they were issued fines for cars that were not even theirs.

“I was issued a fine for 4,597 pesos ($383), supposedly for stopping and letting people get into my car in a no-parking place. The only thing accurate [on the infraction] is my license plate number, but the make, model and color [of my car] are wrong, and the place where the infraction supposedly took place is not identified,” said Mexico City resident Víctor Oropeza.

The process to challenge a driving infraction is complicated.

Drivers must first enter their license plate numbers into the SSP-DF website to check if they have been issued any fines. If a driver discovers he was issued a fine and wants to challenge it, he must go to one of the two SSP-DF offices in Mexico City or call a hotline, where city officials offer more details or photos of the infraction in question.

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