Abuse handicap parking and land in court

Parking sure can be tough to find during the holiday shopping season. With the wind whipping and the hassle of pushing a cart through the slush, those nearby handicapped-only parking spots sure are tempting.

Don’t.

The Mat-Su Borough last week joined local municipalities in banning unauthorized parking in spaces designated for handicapped only. Under the new Borough law, fellow residents who catch a violator can file a complaint, as long as he or she is willing to testify to the transgression in court.

Many have been guilty of the parking transgression on at least one occasion when parking places were scarce and the driver in a rush to make a mad dash into a store — just for a moment.

Don’t.

Then there are those who, quite curiously, seem to justify their violation of the spirit of the law, if not the letter, by hiding behind a handicapped placard. To wit:

• Several years ago a woman wrote a letter to the editor to the Frontiersman incensed that people were violating the handicapped-only parking spots at the very busy Wasilla Post Office. This woman had a disabled designation on her vehicle because she had a son with a physical disability. She, herself, was unencumbered by a physical handicap. In her letter she complained she was unable to park in the handicapped spots due to violators, making her to park farther away to access her post office box. In other words, she had to walk across the parking lot to get her mail. Her — not her young son, who stayed in the car.

• Much more recently at the same post office we witnessed a young woman pull into a handicapped spot, hang the handicapped sign on her rearview mirror and literally dash into the post office — no apparent physical disability and no one in the car with her. When confronted about her failure to leave the spot for someone who needed it, she bristled and said the handicapped sign belonged to her grandmother and she often runs errands with and for her. It was pointed out that hardly justified her use of the sign, and as the granddaughter of someone who truly needs the space, she should be more sensitive to the limited parking available to those who are disabled. She suggested the person questioning her should have better things to do with her time.

The special privileges granted to people because of need are of no use if we as a society don’t preserve them. When those empty handicapped-only spots tempt you, consider that your grandmother could be pulling in the parking lot behind you, looking for a parking spot from which she could navigate to the store, leaning on her cane. Consider the veteran needing that wheelchair-accessible spot on which you’re tempted to encroach.

And if you don’t, the rest of us will be watching, ready to testify in court if necessary.