Safety is definitely not a value when it comes to wheelchairs on Trimet buses

Trimet could provide fast and easy solutions to  the securement problem-click the pic

Reliable sources tell me that there has been a rash of wheelchair accidents involving wheelchair riders who 'refuse securement'.

Trimet is one of the very few transit districts that allow wheelchair riders to ride in a standard transit bus without using internal mechanisms to prevent the chairs from tipping or moving during the operation of a transit bus. Trimet lift on the other hand, which is also part of Trimet, doesn't allow wheelchair riders to ride without securement. So we have one agency (Trimet) with two totally conflicting policies.


There has been some fairly serious injuries as a result of this policy and some pretty hefty payouts. As with all government entities, the 'payouts' come from taxpayers, not from the people that cause the problem.

Furthermore, Trimet bus drivers end up being charged with a 'preventable accident' when this happens on their bus.

So what we see here with this Trimet policy are  procedures that are designed to fail. And when they do fail Trimet points the finger at its operators.

This is what happened in the Sandi Day case. Sandi Day was following Trimet policies when she made that courtesy stop which lead to the worst tragedy in Trimet history. 

Trimet did what they always do, point the finger at the operator and pretend that their unsafe policies has nothing to do it.

Is a person in a wheelchair going to have to be killed before Trimet takes safety inside their buses seriously?  It appears that way.