“I was so upset; I couldn’t stop crying.”
Milly Venus couldn’t believe it when she heard the voice on the HandyDART bus radio, ordering the driver to take her and her wheelchair-bound son, Terry, 51, back home.
When the call came through, Venus, 70, and Terry — who has had multiple sclerosis since he was 18 — were only two minutes into their journey to Vancouver General Hospital last Friday morning for an important, long-awaited appointment with Terry’s blood doctor.
Moments earlier, the HandyDART driver, who couldn’t have been nicer, according to Venus, had picked them up at their Lynas Lane condo in the Thompson neighbourhood, loaded up Terry’s chair and helped him onto the bus.
“(The driver) told the dispatcher he had picked up at Lynas Lane, then all I heard through his intercom was ‘no, no, no. No wheelchairs, take him back,’” said Venus, who, as well as being the sole, full-time care-giver for her adult son, works part-time as a custodian at the nearby Ukrainian Community Centre.
“He turned right around. I couldn’t believe it; I was so upset, I just started crying. I really didn’t know what to say. I thought, ‘is this not what HandyDART is actually designed for?’
“The driver was so apologetic. He was saying he could still take us there, but without the wheelchair. But Terry can’t walk, other than a few steps, then he falls over.
“Terry was getting upset also, worrying about missing the appointment, which was set up months in advance.”
The driver, according to Venus, had no idea why he wasn’t allowed to transport Terry and was apparently mortified at aborting the trip.
Thankfully, a close friend of the Venus family was able, at the last minute, to rush the pair to the appointment at VGH.
But it wasn’t until a few days later that it became apparent why they had been dumped by HandyDART, who’re described by TransLink as a “door-to-door, shared ride service for passengers with physical or cognitive disabilities, who are unable to use conventional public transit without assistance.”
According to the customer service agent Venus spoke to, a policy change on Jan. 1 this year means, for safety reasons, it no longer takes clients using “transport” wheelchairs, which is what Terry used for years.
However, what Venus is still angry about is why she, nor the driver, seemed to have any clue about the policy change; why she wasn’t told at the time of booking the pick-up; and why the journey could not simply have continued, with an advisory issued afterwards?
“It would have been common sense just to let things continue, instead of all this upset, especially for Terry,” Venus told the News.
“And I felt so bad for the driver, he was very embarrassed. We’ve been using (the service) for three or four years. It’s a transit chair, that’s what it’s designed for…transit.”
Venus added that there was some discussion with the booking agent, prior to the ride, about Terry having a wheelchair.
“We spoke specifically about the transit chairs and they would have known we hadn’t used the service since Jan. 1. They had several chances to mention the change.”
The only reference to wheelchairs on the HandyDART section of TransLink’s website indicates the dimension restrictions.
TransLink, which sub-contracts the HandyDART service to MVT, said users of the service were notified last summer of the policy change and brochures were handed out on the buses themselves.
A statement from TransLink described how the policy was changed this year on “transfer chairs,” which are “intended for indoor use only because their small wheels can easily become stuck in surface irregularities, causing chairs to tip and increasing risk of injury to customers and drivers.”
TransLink said HandyDART users were notified six months in advance of the policy change and every HandyDART driver was notified by internal memo, as well as being included in refresher training.
Venus, who used the service several times last year, said Friday was the first time she, and the driver, had heard of it.
TransLink said that MVT has “acknowledged that correct procedure was not followed in this instance. “The driver should have identified the chair prior to commencing the trip so that alternate transportation could have been arranged. MVT is offering an apology to this customer and will be contacting them today.”
As for Venus, she’s going to have to avail herself of a “proper wheelchair,” perhaps renting one from the Red Cross.
“I can’t afford to buy one. And we have to go to UBC in May for another important appointment; how are we supposed to get out there?”
