Bus lane contraventions

This morning I received a fixed penalty notice for driving in a bus lane just over a week ago. It appears I was caught on CCTV. The details and location were correct but I remember the particular circumstances because my car ran out of fuel and I was compelled to pull over into the bus lane to recharge my tank. Is this a valid defence under the circumstances?

Bus lane contraventions are frequently enforced in London Borough's by CCTV using number plate recognition technology.  Similar trials are being undertaken in other cities but it is unlikely that they can enforce penalties outside London without enabling legislation.

The problem with CCTV combined with number plate recognition technology is that it pushes out tickets largely without any human intervention. The law requires that you are served with a fixed penalty notice within 14 days of the offence which doesn't provide much time for any error checking. You then have 28 days to pay or make representations to the enforcing authority as detailed on the ticket.

In your particular case your representations that you were recharging your tank should count as a valid objection to the ticket.

Similar objections might be made under the following circumstances:

• You had to use the bus lane to pass a broken down vehicle
• It was an emergency or you were letting through an emergency vehicle
• You were instructed to use the bus lane by a police officer
• Your car was failing/had failed and you were taking on petrol, oil, water or air
• Your vehicle had broken down

The reality is most local authority adjudicators are pretty fair if there is a reasonable defence and will not enforce the law rigidly if the contravention is unavoidable and over a relatively short distance.

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