Los Angeles buses refuse to pick up disabled
KABC in Los Angeles has a story about public buses refusing to stop for and bring on board people in wheelchairs. Complaining that it was "too difficult" or the disabled did not "want to help" most bus drivers just blow by people in wheelchairs waiting for a ride. Note that the buses are set up to handle wheelchairs, but the drivers must lock down the wheelchairs before moving on. Many drivers do not want to take the time to do that because it slows them down and they believe it is hard manual labor. So some drivers that do pick up wheelchair bound riders ask them to "just hang on" rather than locking down the wheelchair. This is impossible for quadriplegics so the bus drivers get into an argument with the rider and then refuse to take them. Supposedly the Los Angeles MTA which runs the public buses has had the drivers go through education classes again on what they are supposed to do so they do not run into problems with the ADA. So far the government has not looked at the problems wheelchair riders are having but they are hoping that MTA will find a way to help the disabled. From the videos on our source site, it is obvious that there are serious problems with MTA and the disabled. (Source: KABC)
It is sad that the only thing that the MTA seems to be worried about is whether they are going to be sued because of ADA violations. Perhaps if the drivers did what they were supposed to do then the disabled in wheelchairs would not be complaining. Unfortunately, the disabled have long complained about buses and taxis blowing past them because the drivers don’t want the time and hassle of bringing aboard someone in a wheelchair. This writer had issues with the buses at Walt Disney World in Orlando where they refused to stop and pick me up. We just happened to have Disney managers with us at the time and they watched real time as empty buses flew past us, never even trying to stop. After the third bus one of the managers flagged down the bus and made them come back. Supposedly the bus drivers were spoken to about the problem but I have a sneaky suspicion that this problem is still there.
In our "Outside America" series, the disabled complained that bus drivers and taxi drivers refused to stop for them in London. To make matters worse for those in the UK, there are no laws like the ADA on the books so there is no way to sue the drivers for refusing to stop. So the disabled get to stay outside in the rain as taxi after taxi blows by them until someone eventually stops. In the story we did, one person in a wheelchair counted nine taxi drivers drove past them with no one else in the car before a driver finally stopped. Plus, the taxi drivers also have issues with the disabled that have baggage that they are bringing with them. The drivers do not want to pick up the luggage and place it in the trunk because it is too heavy and it can hurt their backs. In another story a disabled person was tossed off of an airplane because the pilot said that having a disabled person on the plane was a safety concern as someone would have to help them off the plane. So they missed their flight and had to wait until another would take them. It is obvious that a lot of work needs to be done to fix these injustices.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Loading ...
iam glad some has steped up and got mta for that i know octa would never do a thing like that mta should be a shamed of them selves