WASHINGTON (WUSA) -- "Can I ask why you ticketed that woman?" In a Congressional hearing, Representative Rob Bishop from Utah referred to Linda Hadley, a 63-year-old woman he saw featured in a 9NEWS NOW story.
"To be hit with 150 bucks, that's just ridiculous," said Bishop.
Linda Hadley, her husband, a niece and a five-year-old boy were stuck in Linda's car for five hours on the George Washington Parkway during the snowstorm of January 26th. The child was crying, and Hadley is diabetic and needed food.
"That is an emergency. I'm shaking," Hadley said about that night.
Since the northbound lanes weren't moving, they decided to follow others making U-turns over the median. That's when U.S. Park Police Officer R.M. Thomas pulled them over and gave them a ticket.
Rep. Bishop chairs the National Parks, Forests and Public Lands subcommittee. He told National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis that if people who were issued $150 tickets that night had to pay them, then Jarvis could be expected to be back in a hearing to answer more questions.
Jarvis said, "We will look into it, sir."
The Congressman can relate to Linda's situation that night because he was out there also stuck on the George Washington Parkway. And just like Linda Hadley, he also broke the law.
"I went across that median, too, to get out of that mess. Three different times emergency vehicles went through, and they didn't clear it off to let people off," said Bishop. He says since the government wasn't clearing the road or helping the people stuck, they had to take matters into their hands.
Bishop didn't receive a ticket and thinks anybody who received a ticket on the parkway should have them waived.
"He's an action guy!" said Linda Hadley about Bishop's involvement in the matter.
While she and her husband, Clarke Hughes, are happy the congressman is trying to help, they also want an apology from the U.S. Park Police.
"I want them to say, 'We are very sorry. The officer that was giving out these tickets, he should have used better judgment.' He was rude to my wife, and I don't like that," said Hughes.
Neither the U.S. Park Police nor the National Park Service, which oversees the Park Police, has returned our calls about whether the tickets will be waived.