Letter: Investigate para-transit bus service

Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2002 | 9:12 a.m.

When my entitlement to para-transit services expired, I had to reapply. I was denied continued services. The method involved for denying service should be investigated.

You are asked to bring in medical records, yet none are used in deciding your entitlement. They walk across Sahara Avenue with you, let you climb a few steps, and from that determine the severity of your condition. I am of the opinion that all seniors in their 70s and above should be allowed to have this service. After all, that will keep them out of their cars and off the roads.

They told me I was capable of taking regular buses. When I told them that the bus steps are too steep for me, they said I should tell the driver to lower them. In all the time that this bus system has been in operation, and even the times I board with packages, I have had only two bus drivers lower the steps for me. Last Saturday a nice bus driver did lower the steps for me. And I thanked him for doing this.

Always in the past, whenever I asked the bus driver to lower them for me, they always said the lowering mechanism was not working. After Saturday's incident, I see why they say that. After lowering those steps for me, the driver couldn't get them back in operation. The bus was full and all the riders had to wait until another bus showed up.

And why did this happen? Because that bus driver did a kind act for a senior person. A senior person who was denied para-transit service. Seems to me that someone should investigate.

DELLA WILLIAMS