Complaints mount against ASI (Part 2)

Access’ board of directors contacted the Office of the Inspector General, a federal oversight agency, after complaints against the transportation service increased. Access, also known as ASI (Access Service Incorporated), was advised by the agency to hire an independent firm, and in August of 2007, the accounting firm Cobb, Bazilio and Associates was hired to conduct the audit.

In the last year, complaints from hundreds of disabled riders against Access Paratransit were for lax riding safety measures and drivers’ ability to safely transport customers who are fragile and in need of special riding conditions.
As the facts poured in, I decided to take a deeper journalistic approach to this matter. I engaged in a series of several interviews, to find out what experiences other riders have lived with ASI. I also quoted elected officials, and the executive director of ASI.

Daniel Duran, a CSUN counselor at the Center on Disabilities, said his $15,000 electric wheelchair was damaged after a driver failed to properly secure his chair to special frames located in the minivans’ ground and sides. Duran said he had to wait several weeks before his medical insurance approved the repairs.

“When I tell them how to tie my wheelchair with the tiedowns, the drivers get upset. Heavy chairs must be tie down in special ways,” Duran said. “They need better training workshops. They don’t talk about disabilities.”

CSUN’s Center on Disabilities offers counseling and support services to about 850 currently enrolled disabled students. Duran estimates at least 60 students use Access Paratransit as mean of daily transportation.

Mary Griffieth, an Access rider, said she depends on the service because she now finds that some MTA facilities lack maintenance and don’t fit the special safety needs of wheelchair passengers. She also complained about the hygiene of Access drivers and said some drivers come to work with dirty uniforms.

“We wheelchair riders especially have to wait sometimes 15 minutes, depending on what area the [MTA] trains and buses pull on for them to locate the tram, because all of the platforms are not wheelchair accessible,” Griffieth said. “We need better Access transportation.”

Many riders also complained that Access’ scheduled pick-up times are inconvenient and drivers are unreliable.

Disabled CSUN student Cory Johnson said Access Paratransit Services’ booking schedules are inconvenient and inefficient for riders. Johnson depends on the service to travel from his central Los Angeles home to campus or to local libraries to do his homework.

“For me, timed pickups are of major concern. We sometimes need to book 24 hours before pickup time for the drivers to pick us up to drive us where we need to go,” Johnson said. “The problem begins when they take away your independence. We need to plan ahead a lot of time before.”

Johnson, an English major, said about two years ago ASI started to deteriorate when the ride-share program was introduced and many drivers began to show signs of stress.

Johnson said in order to arrive at Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center in Norwalk by 9 a.m., he must book a ride to be picked up at least two to three hours before arrival time.

At a March 26 public hearing in the City of Los Angeles council chambers, Shelly Lyons Verrinder, executive director of Access Paratransit Services, said the rideshare program was established by the Paratransit Transportation Agency as a way to save resources and to maximize time on commuting trips. Riders call in and request to be picked up, and dispatchers and staff configure computer routed maps that follow close directions for two to five passengers at the same time.

The Americans with Disabilities Act requires Access to book ride reservations before 9 p.m. the day before the actual ride.

Calavera Freeway

El documental Calavera Highway es una excelente crónica de la vida de siete hermanos en un viaje para depositar las cenizas de su madre en el sur de Texas. Sin embargo, el viaje es algo más que eso: es un viaje de descubrimiento personal e histórico de una familia mexicoamericana en EE.UU. El documental es producido y dirigido por Evangeline Griego y Renee Tajima-Peña, quien es conocida por su famoso documental, un proyecto conjunto con Christine Choy, "¿Quién mató a Vincent Chin?" (Who Killed Vincent Chin?) , sobre el asesinato de odio de Vincent Chin y el despertar político en la defensa contemporánea de los derechos civiles de las comunidades asiaticoamericanas del medioeste.

Fatal crash adds distrust to Paratransit agency(1)

By Alfredo Santana


On November 2, 2007, the day my brother Ernesto died because of the injuries he sustained in a public transportation minivan, I realized people like him can still pay the highest price because companies like Access Paratransit services offer a disservice to their customers.

I further realized people like Ernesto, who lived most of is life with a disability called Osteogenesis Imperfecta, which makes bones very brittle, struggle too much to achieve small, but important goals that are very frequently ignored by all kinds of media outlets in Los Angeles.

On October 16, 2007, Ernesto was on his to UCLA in a minivan from the company Access Paratransit Services, when the Diego Soriano Lopez, the minivan’s driver crashed a vehicle in front of him. The minivan traveled on the I-5 freeway. My brother suffered two broken legs, and fractured his upper left-rib after the driver failed to install the shoulder belt on him. When the crash occurred, Ernesto, who was riding in the space used for the passengers’ seat, shifted forward and knocked against the dashboard.

The California Highway Patrol police report found Soriano Lopez and Access Paratransit at fault in the accident.

Months before Ernesto’s accident, I had begun to research Access Paratransit, also known as ASI. Several disabled students and adults riders have told me about a series of mishaps and problems they often found whenever they booked rides, and were driven in ASI minivans. Some riders, who asked me no to reveal their names because they fear retaliation from ASI, expressed concerns about the safety conditions and customer service of its ridesharing and ridership programs for the disabled.

They told me about cases in which drivers engaged in verbal fights with passengers about issues of drop-off times, routes configuration and how to tie down scooters and wheelchairs. Several ASI customers believe many drivers pay little attention to issues like how to properly buckle harness straps and seatbelts.

At a Los Angeles City Council meeting on March 26, Access customers said the service’s minivans lack space to fit several wheelchairs, and the drivers’ skills are in many occasions inadequate. Some complained that there are drivers who don’t speak or understand English well. They claimed that drivers failed to pinpoint and address problems and either do not understand or ignore concerns voiced by their customers.

Ernesto was admitted to White Memorial Hospital, where he spent one night in the emergency room. The next day he was transferred to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he underwent reconstructive leg surgery. After 14 days in the critical care unit, Ernesto died on Nov. 2, 2007.

My parents filed a lawsuit against ASI, and the civil case was settled out of court in June for $750,000. Dr. Robert Bernstein, an orthopedics specialist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and who was Ernesto’s surgeon, said the injuries he suffered during the accident could have been avoided.

“I understand that if Ernesto would have been properly restrained, he wouldn’t have sustained these types of injuries,” Bernstein said. “One would think had he’d been properly restrained, he wouldn’t had the injuries he had.”

Dr. Bernstein said he understood my brother was launched against the dashboard, and actually hit it. The impact, and the lack of shoulder harness caused the life-threatening injuries.

All these happened on the heels of an ASI audit prompted by mounting safety complaints. It found that the agency needed to vastly improve the safety conditions and customer service of its ridesharing and ridership program for the disabled. So far, not a single local news organization has written a story, or produced a newscast about this issue.

Wal-Mart y las tiendas de raya en México

La Suprema Corte de Justicia de México ordenó a Wal-Mart poner fin a la práctica de pagar parte de los salarios de sus empleados con vales para tiendas Wal-Mart. La decisión sólo cubre a un empleado de Wal-Mart en Chihuaha (según las leyes mexicanas, se necesitan cinco fallos similares para establecer precedente legal y abolir la práctica). Sin embargo, se espera que Wal-Mart cambie sus políticas salariales. Lo interesante del caso es que la Suprema Corte mexicana encontró que el sistema de vales viola la constitución mexicana, la cual ha prohibido las "tiendas de raya" desde 1917. Wal-Mart es el empleador privado más grande de México, con más de 150,000 trabajadores.

Semblanza de José Antonio Granillo

El doble rasero de la derecha: Sarah Palin

Cifras del voto latino en el 2004

• Seis millones 780 mil latinos ciudadanos elegibles para votar (42.1% del total) NO se registraron para votar. (William C. Velásquez Institute)

• Un millón 721 mil latinos registrados para votar (18.5% del total) NO votaron. (William C. Velásquez Institute)
• En California, un millón 978 mil latinos ciudadanos elegibles para votar (44.6%) NO se registraron para votar. (William C. Velásquez Institute)
• En California, 374 mil latinos registrados para votar (15.2%) NO votaron. (William C. Velásquez Institute)
  

Sigue la huelga en las minas de Cananea

Un interesante artículo en In These Times pone a los lectores de habla inglesa al día acerca de la lucha sindical de los 1,300 mineros de Cananea por seguridad básica, atención médica, mejores salarios y reconocimiento legal de sus líderes sindicales. Cananea es el sito de las minas de cobre más grandes de México y el símbolo precursor de la Revolución Mexicana de 1910. Las minas fueron vendidas durante el gobierno de Carlos Salinas de Gortari a Grupo México, de Germán Larrea. El artículo menciona que la la familia Larrea tiene una fortuna estimada en 7 mil 300 millones de dólares, la tercera fortuna más grande en México, un país con 40 millones de personas que viven en la pobreza. Grupo México opera en México y Perú, y es dueña de la empresa ferrocarrilera más grande de México.