Having begun my career in transportation as a consultant, I try to be kind to those conducting the most stupid of studies. A member of a large team of supposed experts in on the National Academy of Science’s Committee on School Travel Safety, in 2002, the five of us with genuine experience in schoolbus transportation were outnumbered by the nine others — largely computer geeks, academicians and pediatricians obsessed by data and a reckless disregard for common sense or experience. The resulting published study – Relative Risks of School Travel Safety – was filled with so many irrelevancies and useless data while missing the main points that it was so widely discredited within the pupil transportation community that it was all but forgotten within a year or so of its publication. So much for the National Academy of Science. Needless to say, I and many others who voiced our opposition were never asked back.
In wheelchair securement, one of my favorite wastes of taxpayers’ money is a study titled, “The Effects of City Bus Maneuvers on Wheelchair Movement” – a 2011 study by Michael Turkovich, Linda van Roosmale, Douglas Hobson and Erik Porach,” and published in the Journal of Public Transportation. The study concluded that four-point wheelchair securement is the best approach. Which of these authors, if any, were trapped in this effort I will not likely ever know. The problem is that this securement – or the securement of almost anything on a moving vehicle (or a moving animal for that matter) – was already proven in 1687 by Sir Isaac Newton, formally establishing, for the first time, what are known as the Laws of Motion. Anyone who has ever ridden in a moving vehicle has experienced these laws, and likely learn them from these very experiences:
- If a vehicle stops, its occupant not nailed down (or somehow secured) will move forwards.
- When a vehicle accelerates, those people or objects not secured will move rearwards.
- When a vehicle moves to the left, unsecured occupants or packages will move to the right.
- When that vehicle moves to the right, those people or objects will more to the left.
Insofar as the 2011 study noted, it must have been funded by the Department of Redundancy Department – that part of the Deep State in which much of the U.S. Department of Transportation lives that Elon Musk somehow missed. (He would have found it in a heartbeat had it been staffed by 780,000 Africans, mostly children.)
Wheelchair securement is not the only transportation issue affected by these laws. Because of inertial forces, those passengers seated in side-facing seats will slide together, in one direction or another, during both acceleration and deceleration or braking. Interesting, these seats are actually more dangerous for certain passengers not seated in them: Those seated directly behind them, and unsecured (as they never are on transit buses) will fly forward at a serious rate of speed if the vehicle must slam on its brakes (which is occasionally necessary, for example, if a bus is cut off by a vehicle cutting in front of it, too closely and/or to quickly). And there are other problems (see https://transalt.com/article/the-case-for-forward-facing-seats/).
However, these forces are far more dangerous for passengers whose seats have wheels on them. Just imagine boarding a transit bus with a lightweight, fold-up lawn chair, and then asking the driver,” Excuse me, but could you hold up for a few seconds? I’d like to sit in my chair the passenger aisle. But I’ll need a few seconds to plug the wheels in.” How many readers think the driver will grant this passenger his or her wish? In truth, since most fixed route transit schedules are tight, many drivers likely would. But some (hopefully many) would not move the bus an inch, and instead, would call the dispatcher, and usually speaking in “10-code,” give the dispatcher his or her bus’ location and ask the dispatcher to summon the police. (This passenger would not likely be arrested but would simply be asked to fold up his or her chair and take a regular seat, or leave the bus.) Frankly, I am drooling to cite this anecdote in court in a wheelchair securement case. Unfortunately, the last time I went to trial in a wheelchair securement case was 2002 (Borja v. Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, CA), where securement of his or her chair was the passenger’s choice, and according to 49 C.F.R 37.165 of the ADA, “the driver may ask,” while this driver did not even do that. Instead, he told the quadriplegic passenger, “Listen, I’m running a bit behind today, but I’ll take it easy.”
“I’ll take it easy!” From the Museum of the Hard to Believe. I was dying to tell my lawn chair story to opposing counsel on cross examination. Unfortunately, I never got that far. With my usual impatience, my answer to his first question got him laughed out of court for defending this asinine (but allowable) ADA policy. Two months later he was fired. (The General Manager should have been fired, not the attorney stuck defending him.) At least 100 wheelchair securement cases later, I have never again gotten to trial. Too bad. I may die before I have a chance to tell my lawn chair story. I blew it. But at least I have a chance to post it. For those of you who never experienced this thrill, getting a jury to laugh is almost an automatic road to victory. No yellow bricks needed.
Anyway, Sir Isaac Newton was right – 350 years or so ago. And the authors of the study cited above must have all skipped 11th grade, in which physics is commonly taught. Frankly, the Laws of Motion are all one needs to know about why a wheelchair must be secured at all four corners, and why doing so is the clear, irrefutable industry standard. (It is also the instructions cited by our nation’s wheelchair securement device manufacturing monopoly, Q-Straint, which goes out of its way to extract common sense from its customers and their drivers.
Otherwise, one doesn’t need “no more stinking studies.” The Division of Redundancy Division, Department of Redundancy Department, has plenty to redo. Of course, listening to reason rarely works in fixed route transit service. During the 23 years my office was located in Manhattan, I must have ridden hundreds of buses. And I must have seen at least 20 wheelchair users on board. But not once were any of their wheelchairs properly secured, or in most cases, not secured at all. The notion of securing their occupants into their chairs – not actually an ADA requirement, but clearly the industry standard – never appeared to emerge as a whim – even while the shoulder harness at least was often present. The ADA may not require usage, but 49 C.F.R. 38.23(d)(7) requires that both seatbelts and shoulderbelts at least be there — installed at every wheelchair securement position.
But why should a transit agency care? After all, these things were only paid for with taxpayers’ money, and in fact, 80 percent of it came from Washington, D.C. — deep in the heart of the Deep State. For all transit agencies are concerned, this money may as well have come from Mars. Maybe, someday, Elon Musk will find it. He sure doesn’t find much waste here.
The scientific principles for securing wheelchairs at all four points were published in 1687 – 339 years ago. Nothing else is needed to prove that securement a wheelchair at all four points, and its occupant into the chair, are the industry standard.
#wheelchairandpassengersecurement #wheelchairtipovers #transalt #transitindustrystandardsofcare #transportationindustrystandardofcare