Soaring fines fail to curb illegal use of handicap spots

“I can’t tell you how offensive it is to find that people are using this program for false or frivolous reasons," says an advocate for disabled people.

Thestar.com
Sept. 18, 2015
By Geoffrey Vendeville

Heavier fines for parking in an accessible space don’t appear to have discouraged the illegal use of disabled parking spots, the Star has learned.

Although parking enforcement officers have slapped drivers with nearly $45 million in tickets for parking illegally in a space for the disabled since 2005, they have written about the same number of tickets each year.

The fine more than tripled in 2008. Parking enforcement doled out $1.5 million in tickets in 2007 and $4.5 million the next year but issued about 12,000 tickets a year.

This information was obtained with a freedom of information request.

The spike in fines followed a Star investigation in 2007 revealing widespread abuse of disabled parking permits.

One case involved a midtown travel agent who parked her Jaguar for free in Yorkville using a disabled parking permit before walking to a salon appointment in high heels. She said she received the permit after a leg injury, but records showed it belonged to someone with a serious heart condition.

The investigation also revealed that there were an unlikely number of centenarians, 4,400, holding a disabled parking permit in Ontario. That December, the Ontario government made it harder for scammers to get away with parking for free by reducing the validity period for temporary disabled parking permits and weeding out thousands of “dead” permit holders.

“The parking permit program is something we - as people with disabilities - fought hard for,” said Sandra Carpenter, executive director of the Centre for Independent Living in Toronto, in an email on Thursday. “I can’t tell you how offensive it is to find that people are using this program for false and frivolous reasons.”

The most ticketed spots were spread out across the city, but four were in Yorkville, where street parking is scarce.

The riskiest spot to park a car without a valid accessible parking permit was 410 College St., in Harbord Village, facing the Kensington Community School. That space alone was responsible for $1.9 million in tickets since 2005.

Scott Wylie, a parking supervisor with the disabled liaison unit of the Toronto police, said drivers continue to abuse accessible parking spots because they are convenient.

Police have seized 800 accessible parking permits for misuse this year, he noted. The fine for using someone else’s permit ranges from $300 to $5,000, for repeat offenders.

Someone can use their permit in any vehicle they are travelling in, regardless of whether they have a driver’s licence. It allows them to park in accessible parking spots and means they don’t have to feed the meter and gives them other exemptions.

Those who need an accessible parking permit must have certification from a doctor or one of a number of other health-care practitioners.

Ontario is planning to tighten up ID requirements for an accessible parking permit, said Anne-Marie Flanagan, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services.

She couldn’t be more specific because the policy change is still in the works, she said.

There are 119,000 people with permits in the GTA and 687,000 in Ontario, according to the ministry.