Dad got a citation for parking in a disabled parking space

The way I look at it, the person misusing a disabled parking spot is challenging Karma to give them a disability.

My xss-hat brother-in-law kept our father-in-law's disabled parking sticker when he died and used it to park where he wasn't entitled. He died before too long of a smoking and drinking related throat cancer. You really shouldn't tempt Karma.

I was a family practitioner for a decade. I never had anyone request a disable parking spot they weren't entitled to.
 
Debating the laws is interesting, because this just brings up the point that whenever you provide an entitlement to someone that needs it - the entitlement will become something that is now their "right" whether they need it or not. The fact that they would take a handicap space so a relative that doesn't need it can run into the store or whatever, is no better than someone without the placard taking the spot. Same in my book - irrelevant of what the law says.

And I am not talking about someone with COPD or balance issues or heart failure. Those people can be perfectly mobile but its pretty easy to tell with observation the might have some problems simply by how they move carefully and methodically vs someone that is skipping about like the rest of us.

There can be wrinkles to all this. The law in my state says the "disabled person" must be transported and just being in the car could be considered that. A lot of times my dad might wait in the car and then ask me to get something for him. I've been asked to pick up a prescription for him while he waited in the car or some other errand on his behalf. And most of the time I put it up it's because I dropped him off somewhere near where I parked, and that's clearly a legal use for it.

But mostly these days he's using it at metered parking spots where he doesn't have to pay for parking and can stay longer than posted limits. That seems to be the primary way they're used now since there are limited blue spaces and curbs.
 
Lots of handicap spots here. Even with the abusers there are usually enough with one open. However with pick up service at a lot of grocery stores these days I don't know why people with mobility problems don't take more advantage of it. Possibly they just like to get out once in a while I suppose, I would.
Same - even space to park the WWW’s (Walmart Watusi Wagons)
 
My cousin is a quadriplegic and did the same thing. Came out to the guy writing him a ticket. At the time he had a modified Chevy 2500 van with joysticks in place of the steering wheel so it was quite obvious. It is strange the plate and card are both needed to allow parking. Should be just a plate IMO.

Not saying it’s misused in OP’s case, but you do see it all the time at grocery stores especially.

At a previous job, there was a guy that had one for whatever reason. He was a machinist and on his feet all day so walking an additional 20 steps shouldn’t have been an issue. He took it upon himself to park at the only handicap space in the entire lot until management told him to stop.
 
Why not a handicapped license plate?
In my Mom's case, she didn't like the plate because it was too plain...

Even getting the hanging tag for her was a struggle. At the time she felt she could get by without it. I finally convinced her by pointing out that just because she has the thing, she doesn't have to feel obligated to use it; but if she was having trouble moving on a particular day and didn't have it, she's out of luck.
 
And yes he has a placard but he forgot to put it out on a day when it was raining hard and he was in a hurry to get out. I remember years ago he also got a citation (in person) when he dropped my mom off somewhere and didn't notice these really bizarrely located lines that were faded, along with noncompliant signage. But an attempt to appeal that on the basis of bad lines and signage didn't go anywhere, and it was 400 miles from home so it was impractical to go to court to argue his case. They just paid the bail and moved on with their life.

But it got really weird because this time because he couldn't find the ticket. It was placed under the windshield wiper but that's buried low on his Tesla Model 3. Then he turned on the wipers and they say something flying off as they were moving and couldn't figure out what it was. My dad then came to the conclusion that it might have been because he forgot to display the placard, but mom thought it might have been some ad placed on cars.

He went immediately to the police station to ask about it but they had no record of it. Today my dad asked me to go with him during lunch to see if maybe he was cited, since I'm generally better at explaining this kind of stuff. So I did. It was bizarre though since the communications are through a phone handset and there's a security window. But I was able to find out that he was indeed cited, but I mentioned how he turned on the wipers and saw something fly off where he couldn't track it down. We waited a while for them to perhaps obtain a copy of the citation but all they could provide was the citation number on a form.

Apparently they have an appeal process, but the appeal has to be sent to their citation processor at a PO box in Denver. They were kind enough at the police station to make a color copy of my dad's disabled parking placard to send in. I included a copy of the form with the citation number and also a copy of my dad's disabled parking receipt. Not sure what the next step is, but this should be pretty easy to resolve. Just not sure if they're going to charge some nebulous fee for their time.

The city of San Diego was the only place I could find with a published process for something like this. They apparently charge a $10 fee for any kind of fix it citation. However, they seems to ask for a copy of the registration too that they'll match to the receipt.

citation_instructions.pdf
Thought I was reading a book.
 
The way I look at it, the person misusing a disabled parking spot is challenging Karma to give them a disability.
My mother was a big believer in this.

My in-laws have a handicap spot right in front of their house and their next-door neighbor has one adjacent. They need two placards now. One for parking in front of their house, and one to bring when I take them places so that I can park in the handicap spaces.
 
As an update (from a few months ago) he finally got a notice from the citation processor. I helped him fill out the review form and send it in, but they didn't send a response for several weeks. That included a $30 processing fee and address to send a check. But he didn't receive it until the day before the processing fee was due. So he sent out the check and so far they haven't come back with any notice.
 
Simply saying a handicapped person who went to their primary care physician to obtain a placard based on THEIR condition is not entitled to a Family Plan. To tie up a spot intended for THEIR condition while Sonny Boy runs inside to buy lottery tickets is NOT ok. No matter how you spin it.
Yes, but sometimes the caretaker has to pull the car around to go inside the building to retrieve grandpa. The optics of this aren't good from certain angles.
 
Forever ago when my brother and I were young kids, dad pulled into a handicapped spot. Typical kids we said something to dad and his response was "you are my handicap". Took me years to figure out the joke.
 
Yes, but sometimes the caretaker has to pull the car around to go inside the building to retrieve grandpa. The optics of this aren't good from certain angles.

I’ve dropped my dad off and then parked as close as possible, including blue spaces. At least in my state, the requirement is that the holder of the placard is being transported.

There’s also disabled plates, where the vehicle can legally be borrowed. That’s a completely different set of rules. Without the owner, meters are supposed to be fed, but when it expires it’s not practical for parking enforcement to determine if the owner was driving or being transported.
 
I can't stand all the people I see with a handicap placard pull in, park, jump out and run into the store. The placard is clearly not for them but it seems they don't care. So I will go one step further - whomever owns said placard should insist they not use it unless used for them, for the reasons mentioned above.

On the ticket, many of the laws are written as "failure to display", so the fact that he had one will be up to the magistrate on whether they want to dismiss it or not.

Penalties can be stiff for misuse of placards in CA.

 
Back
Top