Especially for Lawyers, Part 13 – Why So Many Wheelchair Tipovers?

In the initial days of wheelchair transportation, a major problem was that the securement points were not far enough apart to accommodate some of the longer chairs. Those days of canvas straps getting caught within their ratchets progressed to the modern system where thin straps wind around a spool found inside a housing – leaving room for two or more feet of strap to be pulled out from any operable housing, with a far lesser chance of them getting caught (and needing repair). Instead, a growing problem with the modern equipment used almost entirely today is that, while the devices can be lengthened by several feet (simply by pulling out more of any housing’s strap), the combination floor fitting, housing and J-hook is now typically (if not mostly) 13 ½ inches long. So the problem has become the fact that these devices cannot be made SHORTER. As a result, it is difficult or impossible to secure a wheelchair within the ADA-required 48-inch minimum longitudinal space for it if the chair’s securement points are fewer than 21 inches apart – since the 13 ½-inch-long securement device at each end leaves only 21 inches of room to place the chair where it can be secured

#wheelchairandpassengersecurement #wheelchairtipovers #wheelchairtranpsortation #transalt #publictransitexpert

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