Disabled Bus Riders File MTA Bias Suit

A lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on Friday alleges that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority discriminates against disabled bus riders, violating the Americans With Disabilities Act.

The suit, filed in federal court on behalf of five disabled riders, contends that there are chronic problems with the wheelchair lifts on MTA buses operated by contractor Ryder/ATE in southeastern Los Angeles County. The plaintiffs also allege that even when the lifts are working, bus drivers often pass by disabled riders at bus stops because they don’t know how to operate the devices.

“Disabled riders have not simply been sent to the back of the bus,” said Daniel P. Tokaji, staff attorney of the ACLU of Southern California. “They have been kept off the bus entirely.”

The plaintiffs contend that the lifts often do not work. Safety devices, such as clamps used to secure wheelchairs, are often broken or missing, resulting in injuries to disabled riders, the suit alleges.

“I depend on the buses to get to school at Cal State Dominguez and have had to take incomplete classes because the lifts aren’t working, the drivers won’t help me, or the buses simply drive by me,” said Larry Beauchamp, a plaintiff in the case.

Steve Jaffe, MTA operations support manager, acknowledged that the agency has had trouble with lifts, but has made progress in reducing the problem.

Newly hired drivers, as part of their sensitivity training, must try to board a bus while in a wheelchair. The agency also has toughened the penalties for drivers who pass up disabled riders.

“Things are not nearly as bad as they were,” he said. “I think that we’re really doing better out there.”

The problems stem in part from MTA’s struggle to meet a court order to ease overcrowding on buses while operating one of the nation’s oldest bus fleets.

MTA officials say they are often forced to put buses on the street with broken lifts in order to comply with the court order.

The lawsuit seeks an additional court order requiring the MTA and its contractor to give “equal access” to disabled passengers.