Skip to main content

Half a protest

A British man cut his own car in half as a protest after being fined for having it parked illegally on the road, despite the fact that it was in his own driveway at the time. One wheel of the vehicle had been protruding onto the pavement (sidewalk) by a mere 50mm and the car had been registered by its owner as being off-road, without the annual license duty being paid. However when the man returned from work he discovered that it had been clamped and was told by the authorities that it would be towed away.
July 30, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
A British man cut his own car in half as a protest after being fined for having it parked illegally on the road, despite the fact that it was in his own driveway at the time. One wheel of the vehicle had been protruding onto the pavement (sidewalk) by a mere 50mm and the car had been registered by its owner as being off-road, without the annual license duty being paid. However when the man returned from work he discovered that it had been clamped and was told by the authorities that it would be towed away. He responded by taking a circular saw and cutting it in half, saying that the authorities were welcome to take the rear end of the vehicle. The fire brigade and police were called as the vehicle caught fire during the cutting process but the fire was quickly put out and the police declined to intervene.

Related Content

  • Colombia’s ANI agency is driving forward the 4G PPP programme
    April 4, 2016
    Andrade Moreno is a man on a mission. The head of Colombia's infrastructure agency ANI explains how the organisation is giving foreign companies increasing confidence to invest time and money in the country. David Arminas reports Change, especially when it touches the highest levels of South American business and politics, can bring with it personal danger. Luis Fernando Andrade Moreno, president of Colombia's National Infrastructure Agency - ANI - was aware of this when he took on the role in 2011. B
  • Slick character
    February 24, 2015
    Police in Poland managed to stop a 29-year-old male driver after a 30km high speed pursuit. The BMW driver hit speeds as high as 260km/h (162.5mph) in his bid to elude his pursuers. When the traffic officers inspected the vehicle they realised the car’s rear tyres were so worn they had no tread remaining, and immediately impounded the dangerous vehicle along with arresting the offender. The man was from Krosno Odrzanskie in the west of Poland and close to the border with Germany. Unlike Germany however, Pol
  • Holiday surprise
    December 13, 2012
    A German couple arriving back in the city of Düsseldorf after a vacation had an unwelcome surprise with the car service they had arranged to pick them up from the airport. The vehicle that arrived to ferry them back to the car park where they had left their car was in fact their own, and they were understandably less than pleased. The car owners immediately looked at the odometer, which revealed an unwelcome truth. During their holiday break the car had been used to shuttle numerous passengers between the,
  • Grand achievement for Intermountain
    July 18, 2012
    A versatile solution has helped with a tricky project at the Grand Canyon in the US – Pierre Peltier When Intermountain Slurry Seal, a division of Granite Construction, submitted its bid in 2009 to repair roads and parking lots along the Grand Canyon’s North Rim, the company knew the job would come with challenges. The remote roads leading from Jacob’s Lake, Arizona, to the North Rim Lodge had deteriorated to a point that the Federal Highway Association’s (FHWA) Central Federal Lands (CFL) Highway Division