More on those disabled-parking scofflaws
| July 7, 2009 | 6:41 PM
More journal entries from Tillie Fong »
Denver officials have seen an uptick in complaints about motorists flaunting the laws on parking in spots designated for the disabled.
“There has been a large increase in people who don’t have hang tags when they park, or misuse of the ones that they have,” said Dale Coski of the Denver Office of Disabled Rights.
Six hundred tickets have been issued this year for handicapped-parking violations. The fine for the ticket is $150, which doubles to $300 after 20 days.
Monday, we reported that the Office of Disability Rights was recruiting volunteers to crack down on the scofflaws. The volunteers must take classes and be certified before police give them a special ID that allows them to issue parking tickets.
Coski, a former Denver police officer, heads the effort. She lost her left leg and was partially paralyzed when she was caught between her patrol car and a pickup truck in 1983.
Since the volunteer-enforcement program began in 1993, the number of volunteers has dwindled.
“We used to have nine; we now have 21, but some are still getting trained,” Coski said. “We would like to get 30.”
Part of the impetus to get more patrols out is to educate motorists about a new Denver ordinance on handicapped parking. The law, approved by the City Council in February, clarifies some state provisions, such as explicitly stating that no vehicle, not even one with a disabled-parking tag, can park in the cross-hatched area in a parking lot.
Coski said that motorcycles and scooters have been spotted parking in those areas, which are designed to allow room for disabled people to get in and out of their vehicles safely.
Another reason for the crackdown is that more people are fraudulently using parking hang tags meant for the disabled.
“People get them from friends or relatives who have died, so they can use handicapped parking,” she said, adding that sometimes the tags are stolen from vehicles.
She said there also has been an increase in people not registering or renewing their handicapped-parking tags, which are good for only three years. Instead, “they’re altering the year (of expiration) on the tag,” she said.
Coski hopes that having more volunteer enforcers means more areas can be patrolled. Green Valley Ranch was not being monitored until recently, when two people from Montbello volunteered to go there. Northwest Denver is still underserved, as is Grant Ranch, which is near Littleton, Coski said.
“Sometimes one parking lot may be in Denver, but the next one is in Littleton,” she said of Grant Ranch. ”But with GPS, you can tell which city it’s in.”
For more information on Denver’s handicapped-parking laws or on how to become a volunteer, call Coski at 720-913-8482 or e-mail her at dale.coski@denvergov.org.
Denver Office of Disability Rights, handicapped parking, parking scofflaws
