Feb 12, 2007 10:08 pm US/Mountain
Dead Denverites Often Retain Handicapped Spaces
Contact reporter Rick Sallinger if you know of a handicapped parking violator at rsallinger@cbs.com
by Rick Sallinger
DENVER (CBS4) ―
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If you're dead, chances are you don't need a place to park a car, but a CBS4 investigation has found that many of the handicapped parking spaces located outside of Denver homes are assigned to people who have passed away.
CBS
If you're dead, chances are you don't need a place to park a car, but a CBS4 investigation has found that many of the handicapped parking spaces located outside of Denver homes are assigned to people who have passed away.
Getting a parking space for the disabled in front of a home is not all that hard. A handicap placard or plates, signature from a doctor and completion of a form is required.
Getting rid of those spaces is a difficult task task for the city, though. In one Denver zip code the city found more than a third of the handicap spaces in front of homes were assigned to people who had died or were no longer authorized to have them.
The 500 block of Galepago in Denver is loaded with handicapped spaces in front of homes. One of them belongs to Jose Maestas who has multiple sclerosis. He says some of the spaces on his block belong to people who are no longer alive.
Maestas said once the person who was assigned the spot passes away their family members often hold onto the handicap placards and spaces.
CBS4 reporter Rick Sallinger went to the home of one person and asked if she knew whose truck was parked in the spot of a person who had died.
"Yeah ... that's my daughter's truck," the woman replied. "She just put it over there. It was there in front."
When asked why it was the spot of the deceased person was used, she said "Oh, he don't need a handicap (spot) ... he's dead."
It appears those no longer alive are parking a lot around Denver.
CBS4 found another spot belonging to a person who died 2 years ago. The woman living at the home explained she felt that she needed the spot to help her mother who comes over the home occasionally. The home has a driveway.
Dale Coski with the city of Denver Commission for People with Disabilities said it's her job to police the handicap parking. She's a former Denver police officer who was paralyzed and lost her leg in a crash on the job.
With tongue in cheek she said that those who have passed away certainly no longer need their handicapped parking places outside of their homes.
"They definitely have a mobility impairment, but I don't think they're going to need it too much," Coski said.
She says she tries, but finds it difficult to keep up with the more than 1,000 handicapped spaces in front of Denver homes.
Coski recently sent a series of notes to one northwest Denver home asking if the handicapped space was still needed. There was no reply.
When CBS4 visited the home a car was parked in the spot. The woman at the home explained her husband had passed away a year ago and her grandson uses the spot now. She said the grandson drives her occasionally, but said she no longer needed it. The car was later moved.
CBS4 found a big part of the problem is that these handicapped spaces never expire. Unless the city is notified that the person who has been assigned passed away, others use the spaces.
Additional Resources
- Contact reporter Rick Sallinger if you know of a handicapped parking violator at rsallinger@cbs.com.
(© MMVII CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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