Paul Freeman-Powell was heading to Liverpool’s Alder Hey hospital to take his son to a medical appointment when a guard barred him from the car park, saying his electric car “could explode”. He looked up and saw several signs with the same goal, so there was no way to enter the premises with his vehicle.
Despite attempts to convince the security guard that this decision made no sense, in the end, this father agreed to leave his car outside so that his son would not miss the medical appointment he has been waiting for for five years.
The hospital defends its controversial decision. The center claims that it had “temporarily restricted the parking of electric vehicles in one of our smaller car parks while they improved their fire sprinkler system”, following the recommendations of firefighters, according to the BBC.
In addition, he alleges that there are several areas enabled for these vehicles: “They can still park in the main parking lot of our hospital.”
Since this father published the ban on networks, there have been reactions. Fair Charge, a campaign group in favor of electric vehicles, claims that the hospital is providing “misinformation” with negative repercussions on the conception of “public policy.”
“The NHS restricting electric cars from parking dramatically conflicts with the clean air and health benefits of zero tailpipe emissions,” specialist journalist Quentin Willson explains to the BBC.
And the criticism for the controversial decision does not end there. The head of transport at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit research group, Colin Walker, says there is no evidence that electric vehicles are at risk of exploding.
“Data from EV FireSafe, which is supported by the Australian government, indicates that gasoline cars are 80 times more likely to catch fire than electric vehicles,” he assured the British public broadcaster.