Posted on 09/30/2009 7:46:11 AM PDT by devane617
Every Dallas Cowboys fan wants the best parking spot available when they get to Cowboys Stadium. But a CBS 11 News investigation found game tailgaters in parking spaces that clearly didn't belong to them. In fact, the spots were marked for disabled drivers only.
A record setting 105,000 fans, enough to fill the City of Lewisville, descended on Cowboys Stadium for the first home game and set out to look for a parking spot. That day Gabriel Garcia faced the challenge of wheeling himself to Cowboys Stadium from a Cowboys parking lot at the Rangers Ballpark.
Garcia says the trip was, "close to half a mile, a little bit over."
Handicapped spaces at the $1.2 billion stadium are reserved for "season" ticket holders. But CBS 11 News video, taken on game day, showed that not everyone played by parking lot rules.
Workers for a catering company say they were told to park in a handicapped spot, although they wouldn't say by whom. A party van parked in a handicapped spot too. The handicap sign on their space was covered with a garbage bag.
Police, who say they would have responded had they been called, were just a few feet away.
Garcia, who can't use his legs and only has the use of his biceps, made his way to the stadium fine that day, but fell on the way back to Rangers Ballpark. "Trying to get over the curb, went down to the grass, went into a ditch and I fell out of my chair," he said.
Garcia says its luck his injuries weren't more serious. "Thank God it was on grass. I landed on grass. It's a little more forgiving than concrete. I just bruised a muscle right here, one of my main muscles that helps me push."
At the second Cowboys home game the handicapped parking situation hadn't changed.
CBS 11 News Reporter Carol Cavazos asked a fan about the handicapped space he'd parked in. "You didn't realize it?" she asked. The unidentified fan responded, "It's my friend's truck. We thought it was just open parking."
The man was part of a private party group that had filled seven parking spaces. Two of those spaces were marked for disabled drivers only. The group tour leader, Kathy Johnson, said a Cowboys parking attendant told them to park there. "I discussed that with them and they said that's okay because that was reserved for us," she explained. When asked about the covered up handicapped sign Johnson said, "The stadium actually is supposed to block that off and put a bag over that."
At the Rangers Ballpark lot there was another fan taking up a space that was in a lot entirely designated for handicapped drivers. Cavazos approached the fan and said, "This looks like a handicapped parking spot." After looking around and pausing for thought he responded, "Oh, it is? I didn't see them signs right there."
Another group of fans parked in the same lot had a red handicapped tag hanging from their rear view mirror. But, they told CBS 11 the vehicle belongs to an 86-year-old relative who no longer drives. Garcia confronted the group. "If it's your mom's why would you be parking here? Do y'all have a disability?" he asked. The fan replied, "They said we could park anywhere."
Garcia said the offenses are a 'sign of the times'. "Nobody accepts responsibility for their actions anymore. And, this is what you run into everywhere. Everywhere!"
CBS 11 News contacted the Cowboys Stadium about their policy but a phone call and email weren't returned. CBS 11 News checked other Cowboys parking lots and found that drivers were playing by the rules - at least from the tags and plates displayed.
So, the parking itself isn't tough, it is the jerks who take up the handicapped parking spots.
Both, to get in the lot is $60.00 (I think that is the lowest fee for parking) but the handicap spots are not protected, by stadium officials, or police. People park where they want and hang a black bag over the signs.
The only reason that this story made the news is that it’s the Dallas Cowboys, the team America loves to hate.
Probably, although the local media can’t get enough of Jerry Jones, so they always look the other way. I am surprised Jones allowed this story to be reported.
Handicapped parking needs to be just that, for handicapped.
Many Americans use it as a status symbol because they are simply lazy.
Look at the handicapped symbol, it’s someone in a wheelchair!
Handicap parking originally started to answer the need for wide spaces for wheelchair lift equipped vans. It quickly morphed into parking of connivence for every fat person or oldster that came along. The original intent has long since been lost, and for those of us confined to wheelchairs, it has become nothing more than a joke.
Dude, for $150 you can get a prescription from your doctor saying your handicapped. I have seen way too many obvious young walkers using handicap spaces. Or better yet, download a handicap sign off the web and hang in on your rearview mirror. That would cost about $1.
And here I thought Jones was the handicap: The Al Davis of the 21st Century.
On another note: Wal-Mart in Johnson City recently converted two parallel Handi spaces into one wheelchair accessible space, giving plenty of room to the sides and back to operate the chairlift. Of course the space is always filled with some new car dangling a handi placard, with no lift attached, so I don;t get to use it ... but it’s there!
The stadium will look like a cavern at the end of the year when the Cowboys are out of the playoff hunt and only 50,000 show up to their games.
That's how I see people who park there. Lazy SOBs, definitely not a status symbol for getting close.
Don’t they have tow trucks there?
It’s always interesting to go to the mall, or a movie and find all the spots filled, yet when you go in no one appears to be having problems getting around. Where are the crutches, walkers, and or wheelchairs? The law in Texas says that if you can walk more than 200 ft without sitting you don’t qualify for a placard, but the dr’s seeing patients in a 6x6 room and granny or grandpa says the need a form signs, gets it signed.
Not sure where Johnson City is, however, in Texas, there are different color handicapped signs that correspond to the kind of parking you are registered for (red- temporary, red/van- temporary van sized space, blue- permanent, blue/van..and so on..). Parking in the wrong type of handicapped space than you are registered is the same as parking in one when you are not registered.
LOL, they should make that for the people who get those scooters at the grocery store. I see so many completely capable people using them, and some fatties who need to get out of them.
I’ve noticed an increase in handicapped parking spots, mostly due to the rapid expansion in the number of those with the parking permits. That said, pretty soon there will be multiple types of handicapped parking and permits to ensure those who are actually handicapped, i.e. in a wheelchair get a parking spot.
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