Parking Offenders Targeted in Crackdown

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Parking Offenders Targeted in Crackdown

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By JAMES HANNAH

XENIA, Ohio (AP) — When Maureen Birdsall took her disabled, 92-year-

old grandfather to a California hospital, she lost the only

available handicapped-parking spot to a woman in a red corvette.

Much to Birdsall's surprise, the woman didn't appear to be

disabled. " I sat there dumbfounded, " she recalled.

She was not the only one outraged by seemingly healthy people

illegally using the handicapped parking spaces. After starting a web

site, http://www.handicappedfraud.org, she received postings from

people in 26 states with similar complaints.

The postings come complete with the license plates and handicapped-

permit numbers of vehicles suspected of illegally using handicapped

spaces. Birdsall sends them to motor vehicle departments.

Her whistle-blower Web site is part of a crackdown by residents,

states and towns on the able-bodied who park in spaces labeled for

the disabled because they are wider and closest to building

entrances.

Xenia increased fines to at least $250 from $40 in the southwest

Ohio city. In Texas, Corpus Christi sends out citizen volunteers to

ticket offenders.

Waltham, Mass., dedicates police details to do nothing but enforce

handicapped-parking laws. The city has spent about $6,000 in grant

money for overtime but gotten back about $32,000 in fines.

In most states, people with handicapped placards, plates or stickers

can park in designated handicapped spaces and often can park for

free at a meter.

But it's illegal to borrow someone's placard — a plastic tag that

hangs from the rearview mirror — and use it without the person being

in the vehicle. It's also illegal to use the placard of someone who

has died or to park in a handicapped space without a permit.

Governments are getting tougher because more placards are in

circulation and the public has become more aware of their abuse,

said Tim Gilmer, editor of New Mobility, a Horsham, Pa.-based

magazine for wheelchair users with active lifestyles.

Disabled people have become more vocal about their needs, said Terry

Moakley, a United Spinal Association spokesman.

" People just don't want to settle for no access or second-rate

access, " Moakley said.

Massachusetts is urging its police to crack down after a yearlong

investigation culminating in August discovered that nearly one-third

of the placards found on cars parked in downtown Boston were being

used by people who were not disabled.

" It strikes a nerve with people, " said Ann Dufresne, spokeswoman for

the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles. " They are taking spots

away from those people who really need it. "

Long, 50, of Chillicothe, Ohio, is not disabled, but

occasionally parks in the spaces. She said there usually are a lot

of open spots and doesn't feel that she is taking the space away

from a disabled person.

" I'll do it late at night if I need to pop in somewhere and don't

want to park far away, " she said.

Birdsall's Web site features complaints about seemingly more

egregious violators.

Someone from Burlingame, Calif. wrote: " I could not get close enough

to the Chevy Tahoe SUV to get the tag numbers, but should have asked

the driver unloading the bags of concrete and other construction

supplies from the rear. "

The California motor vehicles department reviews postings that

involve suspected fraud — where a placard has been counterfeited or

the numbers altered, but asked the Web site operators to refer other

suspected violations to police.

Mike Marando, department spokesman, said just because people don't

appear to be disabled doesn't mean they aren't. Some people with

heart conditions or lung disease, for example, have legitimate

handicapped permits, he said.

In Corpus Christi, the city plans to double the size of its eight-

member citizens parking patrol, which was formed after the city

received numerous complaints about violations.

The volunteers drive marked police cruisers and wrote 40 percent of

the 876 handicapped no-parking tickets in the first seven months of

2007.

Volunteer Cheryl Daubs, whose 79-year-old mother is disabled,

typically puts in four to eight hours a week trolling parking lots,

especially trouble spots such as hospitals, movie theaters and

shopping malls.

Daubs said her motive is to educate people. She chose for example to

void a ticket for a man and warn him instead, hoping it would be the

last time he parks in a handicapped spot.

For Shaw, 62, of Xenia, Ohio, walking long distances is

painful because he broke his back in 1980.

He has a sticker that gives him access to handicapped-parking spaces

but says there aren't that many in the city and he sometimes finds

them occupied by motorists who don't appear to be disabled.

" For someone who just uses it for convenience, I think they ought to

be fined, " he said.