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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPolice: PennDOT workers misused disability parking placards
Pennsylvania State Police say a state Transportation Department employee stole a disability parking placard from work.
The Harrisburg woman stole the placard and used it to park in spaces reserved for the disabled at her workplace.
She's being charged with theft and misuse of the placard. A district court employee says charging documents aren't yet public.
Investigators say they also determined seven other PennDOT employees were misusing disability parking placards issued to their friends or family members.
[link;https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/police-penndot-workers-misused-disability-parking-placards/ar-AAAR2Ul?ocid=spartanntp|link]
SWBTATTReg
(22,114 posts)really need and use these handicapped spots. Being a public employee, the court should throw the book at her, being that she should have known better as a normal human being and also, as a public service worker.
Instead of being fined, etc., she should be sentenced to work in a rehab facility or something of like nature. Maybe she'll finally understand what's she is doing in illegally taking a parking space.
FakeNoose
(32,638 posts)There's no need to steal these from PennDOT. People are printing out their own "Handicapped" passes on their home computers. Very few are getting caught, unless someone looks closely at the pass they normally can't tell it's fake. As long as the thing hanging on your rearview mirror is the right size, color and shape, most people assume it's real.
We need to go back to the Handicapped symbol being embossed directly on the state license plates. It's the only way to stop this abuse, not just in Pennsylvania either.
SoCalNative
(4,613 posts)with having the symbols ONLY available on license plates is that many times the disabled individual is not the one who drives or owns the car that they are riding in. Many individuals who have the disabled placards do not drive or have vehicles, so they would be SOL.
MineralMan
(146,288 posts)She had a handicapped placard in her car, which I always used to drive her. She used a walker. What I would do was park in the handicapped space, take her in to the office, and then come back and move the car to a regular space. When she was done with her appointment, I'd go get the car and bring it back to the handicapped space to get her back in the car.
I did the same thing at the supermarket on the times I took her shopping.
I consider handicapped parking spaces to be hugely important and would never take up one of those spaces any longer than necessary.