Yellow Cab Halting Wheelchair Service

[Armitage]

From the Colorado Springs Gazette - sorry, no linkage. AFAIK, Yellow Cab is the only taxi company in town that offered wheel chair vans. A friend of a friend used the service often and will have to find another way to get around now.

Some choice quotes:

"The service provides about 45 rides a day to people who use wheelchairs. Some riders use the service regularly."

Some reasons given for the move

Liability insurance for wheelchair vans is double that of a traditional vehicle"

Yellow Cab officials started talking about ending wheelchair van services when a taxi company was slapped with a $5 million dollar judgement in Denver because of an incident involving a disabled rider.

Such an incident in the Colorado Springs could wipe out its fleet"

So a few plaintiffs (and their lawyers) win the lotto, and everybody else gets fscked :|
This is just another example of the true costs of out of control civil litigation - not just the awards themselves, but the stifling effect of these awards on business.

 

[Chompman]

Ugh, I tried to find a picture of a wheelchair tied behind a car with a rope or something and couldn't find it.

This is all I could find.

 

[Evadman]

?

 

[feralkid]

Uh, you don't provide any links, but would have us all believe that this is another symptom of our messed up legal system?


Who knows? Maybe Yellow cab was utterly negligent and deserved to be heavily fined.


Without linkage, this post is useless.

Or belongs in P&N.

 

[ttown]

Originally posted by: Evadman
?

I guess your arms better not get tired

 

[iwearnosox]

Unrelated but woah.

 

[Chompman]

Originally posted by: feralkid
Uh, you don't provide any links, but would have us all believe that this is another symptom of our messed up legal system?


Who knows? Maybe Yellow cab was utterly negligent and deserved to be heavily fined.


Without linkage, this post is useless.

Or belongs in P&N.

No man, yellow cab wasn't the one that was fined, it was another company and they decided to stop their service to prevent them from getting sued in the future.

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: feralkid
Uh, you don't provide any links, but would have us all believe that this is another symptom of our messed up legal system?


Who knows? Maybe Yellow cab was utterly negligent and deserved to be heavily fined.


Without linkage, this post is useless.

Or belongs in P&N.

Here's your linkage - I thought you had to pay to see the online edition
http://www.gazette.com/display.php?id=1307437&secid=1

 

[ttown]

worthless without info on the $5 million lawsuit.....

If you're trying to say that disabled people won't be able to leave their home unless there's a $250,000 liability cap on judgments, you're nuts.

Insurance is expensive, and capping liability judgments won't fix it -- AND is nuts!

 

[feralkid]

Originally posted by: Armitage

Originally posted by: feralkid
Uh, you don't provide any links, but would have us all believe that this is another symptom of our messed up legal system?


Who knows? Maybe Yellow cab was utterly negligent and deserved to be heavily fined.


Without linkage, this post is useless.

Or belongs in P&N.

Here's your linkage - I thought you had to pay to see the online edition
http://www.gazette.com/display.php?id=1307437&secid=1

Thank you, that's better.


The company?s three wheelchair-accessible vans aren?t used enough to warrant the service, a Yellow Cab official said.

?We?ve been losing money for five years,? said General Manager Fred Hair.

Yellow Cab pays $12,500 for a traditional 2005 Dodge Caravan to carry large loads, but $32,000 for each wheelchair-accessible van, Hair said.

And liability insurance for wheelchair vans is double that of a traditional vehicle, he said.




Liability doesn't seem to be the major reason for their doing this; high equipment cost coupled with low use seems more the culprit.

 

[MedicBob]

I hate to say this, but W/C van services generally are not customer oriented. They want a greater then 24 hour notice of a move, won't file claims to insurance companies, etc. Some are very good and do go the extra effort, but the majority around here don't, about 25 companies.

I am sorry your friend is going to have a hard time getting around. What about his own van?