Broken Buses Prompt Lawsuit

Transit Activists Say Inoperable Wheelchair Lifts in Metro Area Violate Disabilities Act

The Detroit News

By Joel Kurth
August 17, 2004

DETROIT — Transit activists have long complained that Detroit’s bus system is bad. Today, they plan to file a federal lawsuit alleging it’s so lousy it’s illegal.

The lawsuit, expected to be filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit, will allege the Detroit Department of Transportation (DDOT) violates the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act by regularly operating buses with broken wheelchair lifts.

Half of the 525-bus fleet operates with broken lifts and ramps. The Detroit News reported last month. The suit alleges Detroit regularly breaks federal law that requires buses with inoperable lifts to be pulled from the street after 48 hours.  “You shouldn’t let people in wheelchairs sit and rot in their homes because no one in government cares about them,” said Richard Bernstein, a Farmington Hills attorney leading the suit.

Norman White, director of the bus system, did not return phone calls seeking comment, but last month he told The News the city is trying to fix the problem. The suit also will name the U.S. Department of Transportation, which provides the bus system with funding.

Broken lifts have long been a bane to users of both the city’s bus system and the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART), which is expected to be hit with a similar suit next month.  Detroit ranks fourth nationwide, for cities with more than 100,000 residents, in the percentage of residents with disabilities — 28 percent or 245,000 residents — according to the U.S. Census.

Bernstein is bringing the suit on behalf of five disabled riders, including Willie Cochran, 59, a double amputee who lives near Wayne State University.  For the last three years, he’s taken the bus thrice weekly to a dialysis center in Highland Park. He’s at the bus stop at 4 a.m. to travel five miles by 5:30 a.m. Cochran said he allows extra time because two buses with broken lifts usually pass before one comes with a working one.

In November, a hydraulic lift broke as it was bringing him onboard.  Cochran said he waited in mid-air, in the cold, for 2 1/2 hours before a mechanic arrived.

Failing that, the suit demands the federal government freeze funding of the bus system until it comes into compliance with the law, Bernstein said.

“No other city in the nation would tolerate this,” Bernstein said.