Have you ever had your car booted perhaps for parking your car in a No Parking zone, parking on private property, or maybe you have outstanding traffic violations ie unpaid parking tickets.
Well on July 3, 2024 before traveling on an MTA Accessride van, the driver attached the wheelchair securement to my chair in order to transport me safely to my destination.
(In case you’re wondering, without such devices, the wheelchairs can roll or even tip over during transit. I’ve experienced this firsthand — it DOES NOT feel good!)
When we reached our final destination, and he went to detach the apparatus from my chair, he was unable to get it off.
He made multiple attempts. First by hand, tugging and pulling in EVERY conceivable direction, then using various tools such as a hammer in an attempt to beat it off.
Despite his best efforts, NOTHING worked!
After 15-20 minutes he apologized, but he had to go, he had other pickups to make.
I didn’t go anywhere over the next two days. I’d forgotten to set up my transit in advance and the following day was a holiday, July the 4th.
On Saturday July 6, my schedule was packed! When I got on the bus that morning for my first ride that day. When the driver, Jana, went to secure my chair she asked, “What the heck is going on here?”
Like the driver who had originally attached the contraption to my chair in the first place, she too tried to get it off but was unsuccessful, and she urged me to call in a complaint.
I told her I was hesitant to do that because it’s not like the driver did this on purpose.
Still, she persisted so I placed the call right then.
Throughout the day, on my multiple trips, each driver did as the others before and tried valiantly to remove the “extra” equipment from my chair. They were ALL unsuccessful!
Then, on Sunday July 7th, my driver Robert tried like the others before to remove the gear from my chair, and just like all the others before him, he too was unsuccessful — but he went a step further.
He called in to MTA, just as I had done the day before.
He told MTA that this issue was a safety issue for me, which was true as I’d tripped and almost fallen twice over it.
He further advised them that they needed to pay to have me come to/from the MTA garage to have the rig removed, or send someone to my spot at OHB + Central Pike to remove the device since I was going to be there for a while that day, and most impressive of all — at least to me — is that he refused to leave until they agreed to do SOMETHING about it THAT DAY!
In a very short time, someone from MTA DID in fact come to my spot and remove their equipment from my chair!
Like the others before him, he too tried various tools in his effort to get the securement off my chair, and like the others he too was unsuccessful.
So how did he finally get it off?
After taking a few pictures, so he could ‘instruct future drivers of what NOT to do’ when securing a wheelchair, he went back to his truck and got something that resembled a blow torch and cut it off!
I told him to PLEASE be careful, don’t go starting any fires or worse yet, set my papers on fire!
When he was done, away he went, my chair was finally free of ANY unnecessary attachments!
So from the time this story began until its happy ending every time someone asked: ‘What’s up with your chair?’ My response was: ‘MTA booted my chair!’