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By Melody Jameson
mj@observernews.net
SUN CITY CENTER - Spaces next to designated handicapped parking may seem perfect fits for golf carts, but the penalty for such use is high and the tolerance is low.
This is the community message currently being delivered with emphasis by Hillsborough County Deputy Sheriff Rob Thornton. And, it’s being supported by a SCC Community Association director with firsthand experience.
One Sun City Center resident, in fact, recently got the message - the hard way.
Spaces marked with white cross-hatching alongside any handicapped parking slots outlined in blue are solely for the use of the handicapped persons lawfully using the parking slots, Thornton warned this week after a court hearing where a local resident tried unsuccessfully to defend his use of such space before an unmoved county judge. Making use of the cross-hatched area adjoining handicapped parking for a golf cart or a motorcycle or any similar vehicle constitutes violation of both state law and county ordinance, Thornton asserted.
Those spaces are formally known as handicapped access aisles and the penalty for unlawfully using one is a $250 fine, the deputy noted, adding he’s writing more tickets for this offense and fewer warnings.
Unfortunately, the unlawful practice is far too common, echoed Don Schings, a resident deeply involved in community and area governmental affairs who habitually uses a wheel chair. Schings, a SCC CA director, a member of area boards and a community representative to regional groups meeting in Tampa, gets around in a motorized wheelchair in which he is able to enter and exit the especially-equipped van he uses for all transportation.
In recent days, he twice has been prevented from re-entering the van, after properly parking it in a designated handicapped space, because the adjacent handicapped access aisle he needed to board the van in the wheelchair was unlawfully appropriated by another driver, he said this week.
One incident occurred in the parking lot of the SCC Plaza after Schings had situated his van in an appropriate space, exited in his wheelchair and then returned to the van, only to find an unoccupied golf cart where it did not belong and just where he needed to reenter the van in his chair.
“A couple of fellows came along and got the golf cart out of the way” that time, Schings recounted. Even though neither of them was the cart owner, they recognized the predicament the illegally parking golf cart driver had placed Schings in and were unwilling to leave him sitting in the chair in the heat waiting for the cart owner to return.
The most recent incident transpired last weekend in the parking lot of a local church, Schings added. He had parked the van in a designated space, left it in his wheelchair and, upon returning after the service, found yet another vehicle illegally blocking his entry to the van. This time, the vehicle owner soon appeared, “but he tried to argue with me about it,” Schings said.
That tendency to argue the matter cost another SCC resident not only the $250 fine, but also court fees, added Thornton, who appeared in court to support the violation ticket. The unnamed citizen tried to defend the action for which he had received the ticket by telling the judge he was making use of extra pavement too small for any other purpose.
The judge, however, saw no merit in the argument and imposed the full fine plus costs, strongly indicating “no excuses or alibis are acceptable,” Thornton recalled.
The deputy added that all law enforcement officers in Florida – including state troopers, county deputies, municipal police as well as sworn wildlife agency personnel - can and will ticket violators who are caught blocking handicapped access aisles in their jurisdictions.
Thornton noted that in the past he has endeavored to educate residents by issuing only warnings, “but the message is not getting out” and he’s now writing more tickets as violations are spotted.
“It may seem like a small thing to some people,” he summed up, “but to the person who cannot use the handicapped access aisle intentionally provided beside his or her vehicle in a handicapped parking space, it can be a very big thing.”
©2009 Melody Jameson
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