Countywide : Carrier for Disabled Irons Out Kinks

The county’s van network for disabled people and frail senior citizens is operating normally again after days of chaos last week that occurred when a new company began running the service, officials said Monday.

Scores of people missed rides, one Alzheimer’s patient was mistakenly left at the wrong stop and one elderly man rode a van for more than four hours before finally being dropped off at his home, advocates for the disabled reported at an Orange County Transit Authority meeting.

Most agreed that the situation has improved in recent days. But two county supervisors expressed dismay over the confusion Jan. 4 and 5.

“As far as I’m concerned, these are very serious allegations here,” said Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, who also sits on the OCTA board of directors. “I got the impression that there would be training to keep these kinds of incidents to a minimum.”

The worst of the problems occurred Jan. 4, the first day DAVE Transportation began operating the van service.

More than 200 people missed meals and health care services because vans never arrived to take them to nutrition centers and adult day-care facilities, Shirley A. Cohen, executive director of the Feedback Foundation, said.

At one Anaheim health center, a van that normally delivers 10 passengers brought just one, said the facility’s program director, Shirleen Jones.

“The driver said, ‘I just give up,’ ” Jones said.

One woman with Alzheimer’s disease who was to be taken to an Anaheim day-care facility was instead transported to a Fullerton senior citizens’ center, where she remained for four hours. “She didn’t know where she was,” Cohen said.

And an elderly man, picked up from a Santa Ana day-care center at 2:30 p.m. to be transported to his nearby home, remained on the van until 7:05 p.m.

Officials said many of last week’s disruptions were caused by out-of-date and inaccurate papers that listed who drivers should pick up. The lists included the names of some people who no longer use the service and omitted the names of some who do.

Some passengers also had made special pickup arrangements with the old operators that the new DAVE drivers did not know about, said Judith McCourt, OCTA’s deputy director of operations.

The county selected DAVE last year when it submitted a lower bid than the nonprofit agency that operated the service for years.

Though DAVE hired many of the previous operator’s drivers, more than half of its drivers have no experience with the van service.

All drivers received extensive county training on the special needs of disabled people. The drivers will also take addition training courses in the future, McCourt said.

McCourt said she doesn’t foresee any future disruptions.

Cohen said she hopes so. “It was awful,” she said of last week’s mishaps. “I was pretty worried that something terrible was going to happen.”