Don’t park in spots marked for disabled persons
Have you ever seen an old lady struggle to walk to the store as she had to park kilometres away, or a person with disabilities having a hard time getting out of the car because someone else had illegally parked in the specially allocated spot?
A resident was recently shocked by provincial traffic officials’ disregard of the law, when they parked their vehicle on a clearly marked zone, only allocated for people with disabilities at Blue Haze Mall on March 25.
The furious resident said there were more than enough parking spots available. Shopping centres were required by law to provide special parking spots for disabled persons and various fines applied when able-bodied persons disregarded the signage.
Blue Haze Mall area manager, Freek Schnetler, said they didn’t have strict guidelines regarding the disabled parking bays and handled every case according to merit.
They allowed persons with physical problems like legs in casts or pensioners who struggled to walk, also to park on the specially allocated spots.
As a free service, clients who struggled to walk or felt ill could make use of one of the centres’ eight wheelchairs during their shopping trip. These could be requested from centre management, security guards or carguards.
Because the mall was so big, there weren’t permanent guards to keep an eye on the disabled persons’ parking bays. Schnetler said they worked with the relevant authorities who did frequent patrolls and wrote citations or clamped wheels of vehicles parked illegally.
Disabled persons can apply for the disabled parking disc at their nearest traffic office or municipality. To qualify they need to have severely impaired mobility due to an ongoing mental or physical condition or a temporary severe impairment.
Enquire at the relevant office about the application process and what a person needs to bring along, which usually includes your ID and a doctor’s letter confirming your condition.
