From a
CBS news investigation in Chicago:
CHICAGO -- Imagine waiting at a bus stop and having bus after bus pass you by. Some riders say drivers ignore them on purpose and even refuse to let them on the bus. CBS 2 Investigator Dave Savini exposes how the CTA continues to leave physically challenged passengers stranded.
They've been left in the rain and in the cold.
"I get so mad that I just feel like crying sometimes," said Ami Haley.
Passengers with disabilities, including Jason Sanicki, say they are ignored by CTA bus drivers.
"They'll see you and then they'll gun the motor," Sanicki said.
Their pleas for help lead the 2 Investigators to create a database of complaints involving CTA buses and drivers filed under the Americans with Disabilities Act. We found 930 complaints from 2005 to 2008.
"It's a daily experience, it happens daily," said George Flores.
The vast majority of the complaints we uncovered involved lifts not working, drivers failing or refusing to deploy them, or drivers simply passing people with disabilities by.
"I'm just getting seriously mad because the buses let other people on except for us sometimes," Haley said.
Four hundred and eighteen of those complaints were about lifts and ramps. There also were 198 complaints of drivers never bothering to stop even when there's plenty of room on the bus.
So why aren't they stopping?
In one case a person said the driver pulled off after saying, "I don't think I want to be bothered with this."
That behavior angers CTA vice president Jack Hruby.
"It doesn't matter who the person is, you don't pass by the stop," Hruby said.
This past winter, George Flores was left out in the cold for 45 minutes as two buses with plenty of room passed by.
"I would say it was about 16 degrees outside," Flores said.
Finally, a third bus allowed him onboard.
"I was very concerned for my outer limbs that I can't feel because they can cause damage that I won't know until days or hours later," Flores said.
The 2 Investigators found the #151 Sheridan had the most complaints, followed by the #22 Clark, and the bus that passed Flores by, the #36 Broadway.
All three of those buses operate out of the same garage, North Park, which happens to have more complaints than any other garage and some of the oldest buses in the city.
When asked what they're doing to make things better, Hruby said, "A few things. One, we check the lifts and ramps daily when the buses pull in."
The CTA has been buying new buses that kneel and use fold-out ramps versus the older style lifts which they say tended to have more mechanical problems.
We found one passenger reported being trapped on a broken lift for an hour and 45 minutes. Another one said he had to get out of his wheelchair and crawl on the bus because the lift didn't work.
When asked if he had any idea that the complaints had gotten worse from 2006 to 2008, Hruby said, "No, I had not tracked them, if you will, individually."
When asked if the CTA should have known and been studying the numbers that CBS 2 studied, Hruby said, "Most probably."
"You get scared," said Teresa Quigley.
Teresa Quigley and her daughter Ami Haley say they were left stranded for nearly an hour by three buses on their way to the hospital.
"Laziness. That's all it is, it's laziness," Quigley said.
"I have high hopes for the CTA, that we will do better this year," Hruby said.
"Hope so," Haley said.
There was one positive thing CBS 2 found in the complaints: other passengers coming to the aid of folks with disabilities. Some passengers manually opened lifts when drivers refused to. Others even helped carry wheelchair-bound passengers on and off buses that had broken lifts.
There also are bus drivers who have received commendations for helping those with disabilities.
But some believe that many CTA drivers are more worried about making their routes on time than stopping to help, and that won't change until drivers are disciplined for poor treatment of the disabled.
The CTA has yet to tell us exactly how many have been fired or disciplined for this kind of behavior.
From a CBS news investigation in Chicago:
