receive more training on how to handle handicapped bus riders — some of whom had been thrown out of improperly secured wheelchairs during sudden traffic stops. The MTA action taken Thursday came in response to a two-month ABC Channel 7
undercover report. Hidden cameras captured wheelchair-bound passengers meeting
indifference, shrugs or hostility from drivers when the latter were
asked to strap the passengers into specially fitted areas of the
buses. Sometimes the straps were broken, wheelchair lifts didn't
function or drivers blew past wheelchair bus riders altogether as they waited at
curbside stops.
When confronted on-camera with video evidence that drivers violated the
Americans With Disabilities Act, an MTA spokesman rattled off how many
pages of an instruction manual about dealing with disabled passengers drivers are
given to read, and how much sensitivity training they receive, but
admitted that the buses don't operate in a perfect world.
According to the Associated Press, the MTA board approved the extra training and “called on Metro Chief Executive Art Leahy to
talk to labor unions about penalizing those who mistreat disabled
passengers.”
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