Having a wheelchair keeps me from getting hurt. I can only stay on my feet for so long. My knees pop. They hurt. And I can fall down on them, just collapse. People who drive in Nashville don’t really understand what it’s like for people who don’t drive. So if there’s anyone who’s reading this that has only ever driven in Nashville, let me share some perspective.
My church built a ramp near Maple Street because the road I usually travel down was inaccessible. Now there’s construction on that street. I can’t even go around because there’s a fence blocking the sidewalk. Well, I go that way a lot. Now I have to come back the same way because the other side of the street is all grass. And my chair does not do well on the grass. The threads have been worn bear. And this is just one of the issues.
I fell last Friday and now my chair’s tire is cut all the way through the middle. All this happened because I got caught in the construction debris and couldn’t get out.
On Gallatin Road, there was a big rug in the path, bricks, and glass. The cut in my tire is all the way to the rim. Because of the state of the sidewalk, I got hung up and I ended up falling on my knee in the street. Two kind ladies had to pick me up because I had my seatbelt on. Tell me that ain’t bad! And now my tire is cut all to pieces. Insurance won’t even cover it.
The city should make sure construction companies are responsible for the debris on the sidewalks. They owe me some compensation for what I went through. It took me at least 3 hours to get that figured out. My chair is heavy, and it was stuck so good I couldn’t drive it out. I told the people doing the work, “You all have to help me get my scooter out of this mess. They wouldn’t come out. They wouldn’t even talk to me.”
After that, my law firm gave me the number for the Metro Codes Department (Codes and Building Safety). They only called me back one time. So that’s another thing the city is neglecting to do: their job. I even went to the mayor’s office about this. The assistant said he would get back to me; he never did. It was a waste of my time.
I’ve had a lot of accidents this year. People don’t care about pedestrians anymore. It’s a huge problem in our city. Between the disregard, inaccessibility, and construction debris, I’m afraid of what might happen to me. Nashville needs to do better to protect residents with disabilities and residents who don’t drive.