Skip to main content

Short cuts

A construction worker in New York City took matters into his own hands when his friend started arguing with a policewoman who was busy placing a parking ticket on their van. The man took out a disc cutter and sliced off the parking meter at which their vehicle was parked, perhaps taking inspiration from a character played by movie star Paul Newman in the classic film Cool Hand Luke.
March 21, 2012 Read time: 1 min
A construction worker in New York City took matters into his own hands when his friend started arguing with a policewoman who was busy placing a parking ticket on their van. The man took out a disc cutter and sliced off the parking meter at which their vehicle was parked, perhaps taking inspiration from a character played by movie star Paul Newman in the classic film Cool Hand Luke. In this New York incident however the offender was lucky enough not to suffer the same fate as Newman’s character in the film and instead got away with merely paying a heavy fine rather than a brutal prison experience.

Related Content

  • Family fun
    December 13, 2012
    A British mother and daughter both lost their driving licences after French police decided the pair were rather too enthusastic about driving at high speeds. The French police were monitoring traffic along a stretch of the A7 Autoroute when two cars roared past at 180km/h. One car, a Ferarri 599 GTB was driven by the mother while the other car, an Aston Martin, was driven by the daughter. Both women had their licenses taken away immediately by traffic officers and the speed-crazed pair were also given on-th
  • Multi-storey parking
    April 10, 2013
    A car owner in Ukrainian capital Kiev has taken a novel approach to parking problems in the city, ensuring the vehicle has a space and is also free from the potential risk of theft. This has been achieved by parking the car on the balcony of an apartment block, several storeys up.
  • Safer roads needed for the gig economy
    May 14, 2019
    Roads everywhere are becoming high-pressure workplaces for millions of gig economy workers, meaning traffic police need a new way to regulate how highways are used. Geoff Hadwick reports from Manchester, UK The way in which the world’s highways are designed, built and used needs to change fast as the gig economy becomes a global phenomenon. Millions of low-paid and badly-trained freelance drivers are now using road as their workplace, all of them working hard under huge amounts of pressure. The tren
  • Rain storms destroy Beijing’s road surfaces
    August 17, 2012
    As heavy rain storms continue to batter the Chinese capital, Beijing, the number of collapsed road pavements has soared to record levels, according to the city's road and bridge maintenance authority. Since the start of the flooding on July 21 until mid-August, Beijing Municipal Bridge Maintenance Management Group, a State-owned business set up to repair the city’s bridges and roads, received nearly 300 emergency calls regarding collapsed road surfaces.