Springfield-based Peter Pan Bus Lines will retrain employees and begin to test wheelchair lifts on its buses weekly after entering into a settlement agreement with the U.S. attorney’s office Wednesday to resolve allegations that the bus line violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Under the terms of the settlement, Peter Pan must train its customer service agents, ticket agents and bus drivers on the requirements of the ADA, train and test drivers and other personnel on the use of wheelchair lifts, and test its wheelchair lifts weekly, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
An investigation into the company found that all of its coaches were equipped with wheelchair lifts, as is required by law, but that Peter Pan was not properly maintaining the lifts, leading to frequent malfunctions and disruptions for passengers who use wheelchairs.
“Passengers with disabilities should be able to travel with the same convenience and dignity as other riders; they should not be subjected to delays and cancellations because of inoperable equipment,” Acting U.S. Attorney William Weinreb said in a statement.
Chris Crean, Peter Pan’s vice president of safety and security, told the News Service the company has already begun its additional training and weekly inspections. He said he is not aware of any issues with wheelchair lifts since the weekly inspections began.
According to the settlement, Peter Pan received 116 requests for accessible service between Oct. 1, 2013 and Sept. 30, 2014, and met each request. But, the U.S. attorney’s office said, over the same time period Peter Pan could not serve at least 10 customers who had not told the busline ahead of time that they would be travelling because a lift did not work or a driver was not trained to operate the lift.
Between Oct. 1, 2014 and Sept. 30, 2015, Peter Pan met 78 requests for accessible service, but could not serve at least 11 customers during the same timeframe.
The U.S. attorney’s review also found that drivers were not properly securing wheelchairs inside vehicles, a serious safety risk to the passenger in the wheelchair and everyone else on the vehicle.
“Customers complained that drivers would secured (sic) wheelchairs using only two of the four tie-downs, and in internal documents related to preventing or avoiding such a situation, management acknowledged that this issue was ‘seemingly on-going,’” according to the settlement.
As part of the agreement, Peter Pan will also pay an undisclosed amount in damages to a woman who encountered repeated delays and once was stuck for almost eight hours on a bus without access to critical medication due to an inoperable lift.