Request By:
Mr. Fred W. Hale
Route 1, Box 72
Liberty, Kentucky 42539
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Joe Johnson, Assistant Attorney General
In your recent letter to this office, you inquired whether KRS 186.042 exempts a handicapped person who has been issued special registration plates from receiving parking tickets.
KRS 186.042(1) authorizes the issuance of special registration plates by the Department of Transportation to anyone who has lost the use of a leg or both legs, an arm or both arms or any combination thereof or is blind.
KRS 186.042(2) provides that a motor vehicle bearing plates issued to a handicapped person which is being then operated by or for the benefit of a handicapped person may be parked for a period of two (2) hours in excess of the legal parking period permitted by local authorities. However, this exemption does not apply to fire lanes, in places of heavy traffic during the morning, afternoon or evening hours or where the parked motor vehicle creates a traffic hazard.
Therefore, in answer to your question except as respects the above exceptions, your motor vehicle bearing your special registration plates should not be ticketed as long as it is parked no longer than two (2) hours past the legal parking period and as long as the vehicle is being operated by you or for your benefit.