WATCHDOG REPORT: Misuse harms the legitimately disabled

Don't let the pizza delivery sign atop Kathy Andria's car fool you.

On bad days, her crooked spine and arthritic bones ache so much she can hardly walk. Other times, it's the perfect job because it keeps her moving and the cargo is light.

Still, the juxtaposition of a food delivery sign against the handicapped-parking placard hanging from her rearview mirror has raised plenty of eyebrows. A police officer once assumed her placard was bogus because of her job, and he wrote her a ticket.

Andria's experience illustrates how challenging it is for law-enforcement officers to discern violators from the hundreds of thousands of disabled people who rely on parking privileges for the handicapped.

Roughly half a million residents in South Carolina- the state isn't sure exactly how many - have handicapped-parking placards. Last year alone, the state Department of Motor Vehicles issued nearly 137,000 of the blue permanent placards and 21,302 temporary placards, which are red.

Tightening rules for handicapped parking - as many states have done and South Carolina is considering - could subject legitimate users to more scrutiny, cost them more to park and add more stress in their already stressful lives.

Andria, 45, says she welcomes the extra scrutiny if it means cutting down on the kind of abuse she sees virtually everywhere she goes.

Andria was injured about 20 years ago while delivering pizza in West Ashley. 'A 15-year-old boy who had just gotten his permit that day was doing about 70. He broadsided me, folded around me like a hotdog.'

The accident left Andria with a shattered hip, crushed pelvis, and four fractured vertebrae. Today, the pain still comes and goes. If she's feeling OK, she won't even use a space for the handicapped. But when she needs to, it's frustrating to find all the reserved spots taken.

She once saw a woman pull into a space for the handicapped at Citadel Mall, step out in high heels and walk around to her trunk to fetch a television set. She then heaved the heavy appliance onto her shoulder and hauled it into the store.

Andria didn't confront that woman, but she has cornered others and even called the police.

Janet Schumacher, the city of Charleston's disabilities issues coordinator, has a form of multiple sclerosis and sometimes relies on her placard for the handicapped to park close to building entrances.

She estimates that about 75 percent of people using the placards have legitimate disabilities, 20 percent are using placards that don't belong to them and that five percent are flagrant cheaters.

But she sees the issue more as a reflection of people's character rather than a criminal matter.

Harriet McBryde Johnson, a local lawyer with a congenital neuromuscular disease, says placard abusers are 'a real problem. We see altered placards, expired placards, and people using them in such large numbers in certain areas, that it's hard to believe so many are needed.'

For many disabled people, conveniently located handicap parking spaces makes the difference 'between being able to get out of a car and go where they need to go and being stuck.'

She said some in the medical community need to take the issue seriously. 'It's a violation of professional ethics if that's happening,' she said, referring to the possibility that some doctors sign placard applications for employees. 'People shouldn't be using grandma's tag, or borrowing it. It's serious business and the law.'

As Andria drove around downtown one recent morning, rain poured down on her windshield. Bad weather tends to aggravate her condition, and it seems like the parking abuses are more prevalent on such days, she said. Everybody wants a good parking spot.