BOSTON (AP) — State and city officials are vowing to crack down on the misuse of parking placards for the disabled after a newspaper found widespread abuse by able bodied drivers who used them to get free, all-day parking.
“Handicapped placard abuse is outrageous,” Registrar of Motor Vehicles Rachel Kaprielian told the Boston Herald.
“It is an affront to those who need a placard because to them it is not a matter of convenient parking, it is a matter of … need and necessity. It’s dishonesty in its worst form,” she said.
She wants to hold a “summit” with other authorities to address the matter.
A three-week investigation by the newspaper caught scores of people using placards belonging to others in a two-block stretch of metered parking on D Street on the South Boston waterfront. In many cases, the placards belonged to relatives. In some, the placards were reported stolen. One placard belonged to a woman who had died.
A hotel waiter, when informed the placard he was using was reported stolen, said he found it on the ground.
A worker at the Boston Convention and Exposition Center said he was using his 91-year-old father-in-law’s placard because he had given the man a lift earlier.
The placards are issued to those who have had a doctor certify they can’t walk 200 feet without stopping to rest, need a cane or wheelchair, have lost limbs or suffer from certain cardiac or respiratory conditions. Abuse of the placards can result in a fine as high as $1,000 and a 30-day license suspension.
Boston disability commissioner Kristen McCosh says the abuse is “rampant” because the risk of getting caught is low.
“It’s basically an honor system using the placard,” she said.
The state last cracked down on placard abuse six years ago.
