!["It's like the easiest thing ever [to follow]."](https://www.thecooldown.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/image-rec6yS5jFXVljlqp1.jpg?w=1920&h=800)
It started with a letter in the mail … and then another, and another, and another. And by the time it became clear what was happening, one woman's family owed thousands of dollars due to her negligence.
A family member posted about the situation on the subreddit r/mildlyinfuriating, where they included a photo of nearly a dozen envelopes. "These are all the fines my mum has gotten from driving in the clean air zone and not paying," they wrote.
"It's £12 a day and…she always forgets to pay," they explained. "There's lots more probably totalling £2k or maybe £3k as each fine is £120. She's just had 5 more delivered today and that means she hasn't paid every day she went in the zone."
Infuriatingly, they said, she not only refused to set payment reminders, but she went as far as to demand that the original poster or her husband pay the fines.
"My step dad just found out and he's like 'No wonder we never have any money. That's £300 in fines,'" OP wrote. "And I was like '.... There's a lot more.'"
Clean air zones are growing in popularity in U.K. cities. Designed to reduce deadly air pollution, they monitor certain congested urban areas for models of cars that are highly pollutive, namely old, diesel-burning vehicles. If those cars are spotted in the designated clean air zones, their owners are promptly sent a fine.
"It really is a sensible public health policy but of course the right wing folks had a f****** conniption fit over it," one Redditor commented.
Similar initiatives aimed at minimizing toxic air pollution, such as New York City's congestion pricing, have been controversial among diesel drivers, who object to having to navigate around city centers. However, health and environmental advocates argue that this is a worthy accommodation to be made in exchange for reducing air pollution, which has been directly linked to respiratory illness and premature death.
Another person echoed the efficacy of the system. "It's like the easiest thing ever," they said. "This is a choice."
But regardless of her motives for refusing to pay, all the commenters agreed that settling the debt was solely her responsibility, not the OP's.
"She needs to learn her lesson, and she's not going to if someone bails her out every time," one person said.
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