Web sites, higher fines target handicapped-parking violators

XENIA, Ohio -- When Maureen Birdsall took her disabled, 92-year-old grandfather to a California hospital, she lost the only available handicapped-parking spot to a woman in a red corvette.

Much to Birdsall's surprise, the woman didn't appear to be disabled. "I sat there dumbfounded," she recalled.

She was not the only one outraged by seemingly healthy people illegally using the handicapped parking spaces. After starting a Web site, www.handicappedfraud.org, she received postings from people in 26 states with similar complaints.

The postings come complete with the license plates and handicapped-permit numbers of vehicles suspected of illegally using handicapped spaces. Birdsall sends them to motor vehicle departments.

Her whistle-blower Web site is part of a crackdown by residents, states and towns on the able-bodied who park in spaces labeled for the disabled because they are wider and closest to building entrances.

Xenia increased fines to at least $250 from $40 in the southwest Ohio city. In Texas, Corpus Christi sends out volunteers to ticket offenders.

Waltham, Mass., dedicates police details to do nothing but enforce handicapped-parking laws. The city has spent about $6,000 in grant money for overtime but gotten back about $32,000 in fines.

Governments are getting tougher because more handicapped placards are in circulation and the public has become more aware of their abuse, said Tim Gilmer, editor of New Mobility, a Horsham, Pa.-based magazine for wheelchair users with active lifestyles.

Disabled people have become more vocal about their needs, said Terry Moakley, a United Spinal Association spokesman.

"People just don't want to settle for no access or second-rate access," Moakley said.