Calgary family blasts transit service for stranding daughter who uses wheelchair
'Someone is going to end up seriously injured or dead,' says parent
A Calgary family is calling for Calgary Transit Access to be overhauled, after the special needs service stranded their daughter, who uses a wheelchair, at a day camp.
Transit Access, with 15,000 customers in the city, says it was switching over to a new software program and encountered glitches. But Christina Ryan is frustrated with what she and her partner, Ron Taylor, say has been an ongoing problem.
The most recent incident, says Ryan, involved her 17-year-old daughter Emily, and other campers who were left waiting for a ride home for up to 90 minutes on Monday.
Emily has Down syndrome, uses a wheelchair and is non-verbal.
Ryan is worried for her daughter's safety.
"They're human beings. They're beings that can't speak, can't talk, can't walk and cannot find advocacy for themselves," she said. "That's the worst, shameful part of it.
"Someone is going to end up seriously injured or dead, you know, before someone does something. I just want them to fix up the program," she said.
Ryan also said they were not given notice of the new scheduling system and heard that there were hundreds of other Access clients across the city who had long wait times and that it was impossible to get through to the call centre.
'Gambling with her health'
Ron Taylor, Ryan's partner, told the Calgary Eyeopener on Wednesday that he'd arranged for Emily to be picked up, but an hour later received a call from the camp telling him the bus still had not shown up.
"We had to scramble to go pick her up and later we found out that Access had called and rescheduled for a time well after the camp had closed." he said. "So they offered up an an excuse that they had a new system and it had a glitch."
"It's not the first time — it's frequent, it's bi-weekly. For them to claim that this is a one-time glitch is absolutely false. This is a recurring issue. I'm not surprised that this happened but it's always a bit of a surprise to get that call — oh, we gotta go.
"Fortunately, this last one was only an hour, but we've had instances where she'd be at her swimming therapy and this is in the winter and two and a half hours later discover that she's not been picked up and the facility has closed. She'd be out in the snow waiting. And I don't have to explain the physical harm that could come to a fragile person waiting out in the snow in winter."
Taylor says it's a dangerous situation for someone like Emily who has frequent seizures. She also has a strict schedule of medications.
"They're gambling with her health. Fortunately, nothing so far has happened but we don't want to get the call that something has. It's a matter of time."
Glitches in software system
Calgary Transit Access says a new software system that books and schedules trips caused the delays.
"We were implementing a new system upgrade that helps us book and schedule the trips, and with some technology issues, some trips had to be rescheduled," said Calgary Transit spokesperson Sherri Zickefoose. "There was also a human error that contributed to trips having to be rescheduled and that led to more delays."
Zickefoose says they are making progress in resolving the glitches and expect service to return to normal in a few days.
"We care about our customers and it is regrettable. We're committed to customers to provide reliable and helpful, informative and easy to use service.They've come to rely on that and we want to continue deliver that to them," Zickefoose said.
Taylor says this can't be blamed on a one-time glitch.
"This isn't the first time Calgary Access has managed to drop the ball en masse and that's the only reason it's getting the attention it is."
Taylor has been in contact with other parents on social media who refuse to use the service because of the continuing problems and "because it is absolutely not safe for the child."
Ideally, he would like to work with Access to get to the bottom of the problem.
"I'd like dialogue. We want to work with them to fix the system. It's obviously broken. When we call with our concerns, it turns into a sick game of finger-pointing and self-preservation. That's not what we're looking for."
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