Posted on 05/25/2016 8:28:28 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Non-handicap drivers are gobbling up parking spaces all over California.
State lawmakers say the rampant abuse of the disability parking placard system starts at the Department of Motor Vehicles.
A few hours ago, elected leaders announced a bi-partisan audit of the DMV in hopes of getting to the root of the problem.
We uncovered cheating of the system in the Bay Area.
D.A. Issues Warning To San Franciscans Who Abuse Disabled Parking Placards There is an incredible amount of fraud and it’s been going on for years. There has to be.
Does 1 in 8 California drivers have a disability? That’s how many blue placards there are.
California To Crack Down On Disabled Parking Placard Abuse It’s pretty easy to get one. Just fill out a form and have a doctor sign it. An audiologist could say you have balance issues and can’t walk far or a psychiatrist could say you’re depressed. Those are actual ways to get a placard.
Robert Planthold helped write a grand jury report on the problem almost 10 years ago and has been fighting for reform ever since.
San Francisco Disabled Parking Placards Cost City $22.7 Million “Doctors get very low fees on HMO payments so that, what’s it to a doctor to fill out a form for you to keep you as a patient?” he said.
“There was a place in San Francisco that we were told that for $750 in cash, you would get a completed form, authorized by the right type of doctor,” Planthold said.
But nothing was done. So the problem is massive.
Democrat Mike Gatto and Republican Eric Linder have joined together to ask for an audit of DMV procedures.
“The benefit of the audit is that it will bring to light whether enforcement is enough, or whether there needs to be some additional changes,” Assemblymember Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles) said.
Like whether balance or parking anxiety is an appropriate reason to be able to park at any meter, without paying, as long as you want. That’s what you get with one of these passes.
“There are roughly 24 million drivers in California and there’s 3 million or more with a disability placard… We know that one out of eight drivers is not disabled… So we know there is massive abuse out there,” said Gatto.
California lawmakers have drafted a bill modeled after an existing law in Michigan.
According to Gatto, once the law came into effect Michigan saw a 98 percent drop in the amount of people applying to placards.
Maybe I’ll have to eat my words but I can’t see myself using the scooters. It would be a real pain to get up and down to reach things and wait for oblivions to clear their obstructions. Not that I don’t need more humility and patience.
Does 1 in 8 California drivers have a disability?
Maybe, Only 1 out of 3 people have a JOB!! and More than half of those are PAID at the POVERTY LEVEL!!!
It’s hard to beat the 1999 classic of 14 UCLA Football players getting disabled blue placards...:^)
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/29/sports/college-football-9-enter-pleas-in-ucla-parking-case.html
I guess the rules didn’t get tightened up after that.
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