State Sues OCTD Over Lack of Wheelchair-Accessible Coaches

The state attorney general has filed a lawsuit accusing the Orange County Transit District of violating a state law requiring that new bus service be accessible to the disabled.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Orange County Superior Court, argues that when OCTD contracted with Greyhound last July 1 to operate so-called freeway coaches between Fullerton and Los Angeles, it should have required that Greyhound use vehicles equipped to handle wheelchairs.

Kennard Smart, OCTD’s lawyer, said Friday that he had not seen the papers in the lawsuit but was aware it was going to be filed because of previous negotiations with the attorney general’s staff.

“They take the view that a private company under contract must follow the same requirement that we have to follow, and we disagree with that interpretation of the statute,” Smart said.

The suit was prompted by complaints from a Los Angeles group that sponsored demonstrations against Greyhound’s operation of the route last fall, OCTD officials said. Similar protests have occurred nationwide.

OCTD officials said only one wheelchair passenger has ever taken the route, even though some of the buses used on it are operated by another firm that does use buses equipped with wheelchair lifts.

Greyhound also operates a Huntington Beach-to-Los Angeles route under the same $1.9-million, 3-year contract with OCTD.

Smart said no complaints about the lack of wheelchair accessibility were received between 1975 and 1988, when the Los Angeles-based Southern California Rapid Transit District operated buses on the same route under contract to OCTD--buses that also were not equipped to handle wheelchairs.

The law requiring new service to be wheelchair-accessible has been in effect since 1971, he noted.

OCTD plans to have its entire fleet accessible by wheelchair in 1991. All new buses purchased by the transit agency are accessible by wheelchair.

Officials at Greyhound and the attorney general’s office could not be reached for comment Friday.

Greyhound was not asked to provide buses for handicapped people, Smart said, because of the difficulty of obtaining them and the reluctance of any firm to commit money to such buses for a contract that may not be renewed.

Contracting with Greyhound is part of OCTD’s effort to save money by “privatizing” some of its service.