I really saw something bad today!

dlimb2

Spent all night and day at the hospital...My father needs the main valve in his heart replaced...I went to sit in the truck for a little while...there was a guy who had parked his van in a handycapped spot and he has a lift on the side of his van so he can get in and out of the van without assistance...he goes into the hospital...shorthly after a lady pulls in between the handycapped space the ones with the lines and pulls up her car blocking the door to his lift....Now there are plackards all over this Van saying not to pull to close...and stay at lest 6 feet from the vans door...He comes back out after a while and rolls up to his Van...he says to me that is aggrivating and rolls his wheelchair back into the hospital and then comes out with a hospital employee...he is instructing the guy as to how to work the controls on the steering column as his Van does not have a brake and a gas pedel....The Hospital Employee clims in the Van...guy is sitting next to the Van on the drivers side in his wheel chair....guy starts the Van...Puts it in reverse and does the opposite of what the guy told him to do...he leave the parking space at about 40 miles an hour in reverse and slams into anther van and sandwaches it up next to another van...totallly knocking the first van out of its parking spot....when he took out he just missed the handycapped guy by a inch...I have never seen anything like this before it scared the living daylights out of me...I could not believe what I was seeing....all in a hospital parking lot...I was really afraid to look to see if any one had been standing in between the cars...as they had now become one...No one was hurt, but let me tell you...oh what could have been...

Sandhawk

TonedPeaceNut

I feel as though the penalty for parking in a handicapped space is way too lenient. If you have someone in your family who needs that space you understand what I mean. I think on the 3rd ticket -- loss of license would be appropriate. $500 1st -- $2500 2nd offense.

TPN

dlimb2

If it is priviate property nothing can be done....If that lady only knew what she had caused....I can not say enough!!!!!

Kore

WOW! thats crazy, why didn't they go get the lady instead.

/Kore

dlimb2

This was a hospital...How would I find her...

flaminio

<< <i>This was a hospital...How would I find her... >>

Stake out her car, of course.

BigGreek

You would think that a hospital would have someone trained on
how to operate a wheelchair van!

dlimb2

Big, yeah you would think!...but not the case here...if there had been a death on this...it was bad...thank God no one was between the Vans or walking near when that guy did that.

pf70collector

page the licensce number and make of the car on the hospital public announcement Say you car is being towed. I bet they come running.

CarlWohlforth

That guy will get in trouble for trying to drive the van. I would guess they are supposed to tow the illegally parked car... What a terrible thing to see!

dwsblue

Hope that your dad does well..........God bless

UncleWiggly

Why

mikebombs

There was a multi car accident this morning in NYC which resulted in a mini school bus to end up partially on the curb. Moments later a car rear ended the school bus causing it to crush two young women between it and a building killing one that was 25 years old. True story

Boom

Ignorance is not biased. It does not discriminate and knows no bounds. I have GOT to ask the Forum's Resident Internal Medicine specialist (a Nephrologist) just what he thinks the chances of finding a cure for HIA disease during our lifetimes are.

Deadhorse

<< <i>If it is priviate property nothing can be done....If that lady only knew what she had caused....I can not say enough!!!!! >>



Private property means nothing here. Handicapped parking is a section of the ADA and is federally mandated. Any business, institution, etc. that is accessable to the public is covered under it.

The person who caused this mess is liable for all damages and open to at least the basic fine which can be increased at the discretion of the judge.
Jail time is also allowed and possible license suspension, again it's at the discretion of the judge. Personal and property damage caused by violation is not discretionary. Someone should have called the wrecker service, taken the license number and the person responsible could and should have been arrested. At the very least cited with a citation and been exposed to liability which the courts will enforce.

When this first became law, I want to say it was Jan. 1 1993, I was involved in the consruction industry. We built section 8 housing and parking lots, among other projects. I was the guy who got the ADA manual in late '92 and had to act as our company's in-house authority on implementation. It's alot like reading the phone book and it's thicker than the Houston White Pages with print about as small.

Hadicapped parking is very strict and the guidlines on implemetation are decisive. There just aren't any if's and buts in there and there are no exceptions but for certain small businesses and lots with less than 5 parking spots. It may have changed since I got out of that industry in '97, but I doubt it.

Conder101

The woman who parked illegally would be liable for a citation for the illegal parking but not for the rest of it. The hospital is liable for the rest of the damages because their employee tried to move the van. The employee shoud not have tried to drive the van if he was not familiar with the controls. Here at our hospital we are instructed not to try an move the patients cars. (For exactly the reason this story demonstrates.) There is also no reason why someone at the hospital should be familiar with how to drive the van. I'm sure there are several different setups for handicapped vans depending on what handicap the owner has. Why would you expect a hopital to have someone there familiar with how to drive all the different types?

mrearlygold

There's a few lawyers over there who think they won the lottery today


Hope your Dads surgery goes well




Tom

northcoin

Maybe I missed something, but I don't believe from the original account that the lady who blocked the van's door was herself parked in a handicap space. She was thoughtless or in a hurry failed to notice that she was blocking the lift door on the adjacent van - but if she was not in a handicap space herself I don't see what right the hospital would have had to tow her car. A simpler solution would have been to simply have the tow truck pull out the van so the lift door would have enough room to open - that is assuming a reasonable effort had been made to page her as suggested above and there was no response. IN ANY EVENT, it was fortunate that no one was physically injured.

By the way - may I wish your father the best. Last Saturday I attended a medical seminar at Penn State Medical College in Hershey, PA given by a cardiologist describing to admitted prospective medical students and their parents (yours truly) how a heart valve that needed replacement could be identified by the sounds heard in a stethescope. We were all handed stethescopes and he then broadcast to our stethescopes various heart sounds as he described the physiology associated with their creation. Once the problem was identified he noted there would be an excellent chance of full recovery as the cardiac surgeons had excellent capability to correct the problem.

hedgehog847

OK...I work in a hospital. If one of our staff got in a patient's van and rammed another vehicle with it, that would open the facility up to an enormous lawsuit, a possible sentinel event, and potential revocation of Joint Commission Accreditation!! This is a huge no-no!!! I would write a letter to the CEO of that facility and detail what you saw, and inform him that his staff shouldn't be playing crash-up-derby with patients' vehicles.

P.S. Hope your dad does well in surgery.

hedgehog847

and inform him that his staff shouldn't be playing crash-up-derby with patients' vehicles.

How sexist of me.... or inform her if the CEO is a she. Sorry ladies!

Conder101

Northcoin, from the description it sounds like what she did was to park between the handicapped spaces in the area with the diagonal lines which is intended to provide seperation between vehicles so people in wheelchairs or with lifts have the room to be able to get into and out of their cars. So she is still illegally parked and should get a citation.

northcoin

dlimb2 - Did Conder101 get it right? Hope all is going well for your dad.

roadrunner

Calling for the wrecker if someone were illegally parked (as well as the police would have been the proper thing to do.

roadrunner

nwcs

I agree with two things said here: fine the @#%#$%^$% out of the people who pull stupid $%$%^$%^ like that and then tow the $#%#$$% vehicle.

MrXray

My wife was disabled. I've had many, probably close to 50 cars towed in various parking lots. Hospitals, grocery, apartment compexes. Private and otherwise parking lots. Its a ADA thing. Ohh, and got arrested a couple of @$$holes, Who wanted to fight me as there car was getting lifted. hehe.

Why so many? Because when a person cannot get into there car, cause someone doesn't have the decency to respect others they deserve it.

poorguy

When I was working as a valet attendant at a casinon many moons ago, we had to drive those handicap vans sometimes. They aren't that difficult to drive at all. There are just handles that control the gas and the brakes instead of the usual foot pedals.

There was an incident that happened right after I left that job where an employee was driving one of those handicap vans down a parking isle and someone started pulling out way in front of them. They pushed the lever and the van went VROOOM right into that car pulling out. Wrecked about 5 vehicles to the point where they all had to be towed away. The employee declined a drug test and simply quit. I guess if you're drunk or high you might have a problem driving them but sheesh.