A cancer patient on wheelchair, her daughter and the staff of an ambulance were fined each with 300 euros for traveling from one regional unit to another during the lockdown. The group was returning to Veria from Thessaloniki where the patient had undergone chemotherapy.
The ambulance of a private medical service was stopped by Traffic Police at the toll booth on the highway. Inside the vehicle was the cancer patient of wheelchair, her daughter, the driver and a paramedics.
“The policeman told us we where much too many people in the vehicle and issued fines of 300 euros to each one of us,” the daughter complained to ANT1 TV on Wednesday morning.
She said that they had and showed to police all relevant official documents needed “we tried to explain the situation for half an hour but the police was apathetic.”
The officer told them to “appeal the fines.”
The daughter complained, among others, that the police was “interrogating” her mother who had difficulty to answer due to breathing problems.
All four appealed the fines.
Traveling from one unit to another regional unit is allowed for health reasons, funerals and ‘reunification of parents with children.
As for the ambulance capacity… you cannot send a cancer patient for chemo 150 km away without escorting him, can you?
There have been a lot of denouncements about police arbitrariness issuing lockdown violation fines claiming the weirdest reasons just for the sake of issuing a fine.
UPDATE: After an outcry on media and social media, all the four fines were canceled, people report on social media.
PS A defenseless citizen has to turn to media to claim his right…
These COVID restrictions give ‘Little Hitlers’ a Christmas bonus of unbridled euphoria.
Mentally unstable and VERY dangerous.
Isn’t that just a little too heavy handed given the unfortunate circumstances
This is a good example of applying the LETTER of the law instead of the SPIRIT of the law. As to the police being unsympathetic, one would think they would have had a few more brains as they stopped an AMBULANCE!
This has all the hallmarks of a lack of guidance from senior police officers as to the interpretation of the law.
Discretion is a necessary power for the police and they should try implementing it more.
Only then will you gain more respect from the population YOU SERVE.