DC ParaTransit Info The Wheels are broken, but it's not our chairs …

One MV Transit trainer’s solution to the MetroAccess budget crisis: Kill the riders?

You would think a "trainer" would understand that the proper place to secure wheelchairs on vehicles are the "hardpoints", the strongest attachment locations of a chair, wouldn't you?
On most wheelchairs, these hardpoints are the bars connecting the seat to the chassis cage.  Usually 4 of them are to be found on wheelchairs, they are amongst the strongest components of any chair as they're designed to keep the seat connected to the wheelbase in motion.

Unfortunately, there is at least one trainer on the road this morning who not only seems ignorant of the concept of hardpoints, but actively demands to secure wheelchairs by wrapping tie-down straps around weak plastic components of wheelchairs that are not directly connected to the chassis cage of a chair.

This after parking the van beside a pathway stub that ends in a step - apparently, not only can wheelchairs be secured by flimsy plastic attachments, but they also have Dalek-like abilities to hover 3" off the ground to reach the ramp.

This is one of MV Transit's "trainers" - and that's not even going into the trainer's seeming other form of ignorance: his patronizing, condescending, and downright rude, obnoxious, and paternalistic dismissal of the rider advising him of the correct securement points - one hell of an example to his trainee!

Even worse?  MetroAccess dispatch at Hyattsville's response to being told their trainer is trying to secure wheelchairs in a totally unsafe manner is to essentially tell the passenger to shut up and be secured the way the trainer desires, or they'll tell the driver to put the rider off.

We believe this trainer needs to be taken off the road immediately, and either retrained or told to find a different career.  Going by this trainer's actions and attitude this morning, we believe he is a danger to MetroAccess riders, and believe it seriously has to be questioned what else he is "training" his charges in.

Likewise, Hyattsville dispatch needs looking into as a matter of urgency.  When a rider informs them that their driver is being unsafe and negligent, their response should be somewhat more than effectively saying "Shut up or get off".

Rider safety is part of the MetroAccess rider's "Bill of Rights".  In that respect, we fully believe this trainer and Hyattsville dispatch this morning both violated that Bill of Rights.

More worryingly is that, right now, MetroAccess has a trainer on the road whose  idea of wheelchair securement is negligent, wrong, and blatantly dangerous for riders, but also one whose attitude is impossible for us to characterize in any other way than indicating a deep and paternalistic prejudice against wheelchair users, perhaps all of his charges.

WMATA needs to get this trainer off the road as fast as is humanly possible, and remind the dispatchers that safety is supposed to be their first priority over everything else - even above looking out for their union buddies.