Consider safety when evaluating Wheelchair Transportation
- Wheelchair transportation services are widely available for disabled travelers. The Americans With Disabilities Act requires all ground transportation companies provide accessible vehicles. Transporting individuals in wheelchairs requires special vehicles and special consideration. Individuals who use wheelchairs must be easily and safely loaded and unloaded, and special attention must be given to their safe transport once they are inside the vehicle.
- Seatbelts reduce the frequency and extent of injuries for passengers being transported both in and out of wheelchairs if their vehicle is involved in a sudden collision. Seatbelts cut medical costs for auto accidents by more than 80 percent, and have been shown to be more than 50 percent effective in reducing deaths and serious injuries to passengers of vehicles involved in crashes. People being transported in wheelchairs are no exception. When the vehicle they are riding in comes to a sudden stop, the only thing that can prevent them from being thrown around inside the vehicle and striking hard metal objects is the seat belt. Seat belts must be used to keep passengers in their wheelchairs where they are less likely to sustain serious injuries. Naturally, the wheelchair must be securely attached to the vehicle with restraining straps or devices so it remains in place and away from injury-causing objects. Failing to secure the wheelchair to the vehicle, or the passenger to the wheelchair, will almost certainly increase the severity of injury sustained if the vehicle must make sharp turns or sudden stops, or if it collides with another object. The driver or an attendant should take the responsibility to ensure that restraining devices are properly secured for any wheelchair and its passenger.
- Additionally, wheelchairs must be constructed to withstand the force of a collision. Most wheelchairs are designed to be used just as mobile chairs, not as rigid structures able to withstand the severe forces involved in collisions.
- The ADA requires that vehicles like buses transport any wheelchairs, whether they can be adequately secured or not. If a wheelchair cannot be successfully secured, or the vehicle’s securing equipment isn't functioning, the passenger must be allowed to ride anyway. However, the regulations state that wheelchair users may be denied transportation if they do not allow their chairs to be secured.
- When considering wheelchair transportation, passenger safety as well as convenience is an important consideration in deciding where to go and how to get there.