Disabled-Parking Bills Target Those Who Cheat Abuses Include Sticker Renewals After Death, Copying Passes

Fred Miles takes a while to hobble to his car parked in a disabled-parking space just outside Top Foods. He’s 83 with a bad hip and knee, and even the short walk across the rain-swept asphalt is painful.

Miles is among about 205,000 Washington motorists who are registered with the state as having passes to park in disabled-parking spaces and at parking meters free of charge.

But not everybody who has a pass is like Miles, as he himself will tell you. “Some of ‘em look pretty young and healthy to me,” he says. At times, he adds, some of them fill spaces needed by Miles and people like him.

Indeed, an unknown number of permit holders - perhaps in the thousands - are not disabled at all, state officials and lawmakers say.

They have the little placards or license plates bearing a “disabled” logo because their doctor signed the necessary forms based on a borderline or fictitious ailment. Or they use the one issued to their late mother or husband. Or they get one from a friend who leaves the state.

This year, lawmakers in both houses are determined to put a dent in a disabled parking scam that licensing officials have known about for years, one brought to the public’s attention last summer by the Seattle Times.

Lawmakers are proposing legislation that would make fraudulent use of disabled parking passes far easier to detect and costly for cheaters who are caught.

The proposals also would crack down harder on people without passes who park illegally in disabled-parking zones.

The Seattle Times, which analyzed disabled-parking records at the state Department of Licensing, found among other things that 10,000 dead people still held passes. Some of the passes, the newspaper found, had been renewed after death.

The newspaper also found people who are using extra copies of passes provided by friends or relatives.

The passes can be worth a lot of money, up to $2,000 a year in free parking for a worker in downtown Seattle, the newspaper said.

Oke and Rep. Pat Scott, D-Everett, are proposing legislation they hope will put a serious dent in abuse of disabled-parking privileges. Oke’s bill is SB6190, and Scott’s is HB2440. Her measure will be heard Thursday by the House Transportation Committee.

Their proposals would:

Make illegal use of a pass a traffic infraction with a penalty of $250 for the first offense and 40 hours of community service for subsequent offenses. Parking without a pass would carry a fine of $175.

Go after doctors, chiropractors and nurse practitioners who provide false information on disabled parking permit applications. The fraud would be a gross misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine.

Require that a person getting a pass also get an identity card bearing the pass’ serial number so that authorities can easily check to see whether a person using the pass is the owner.

Make it tougher for pass-holders to get extra windshield placards. They would be required to submit a written request to the Department of Licensing. Holders of temporary passes would not be eligible for extra placards.

Allow local law enforcement agencies to appoint volunteers to issue notices of infractions for violation of disabled parking laws.

Allow local jurisdictions to impose time limits on use of parking meters by disabled motorists.

A possible hang-up to passage of the legislation could be Department of Licensing resistance on grounds it lacks the additional funding needed to enforce a new law.

Licensing officials still are analyzing the cost, spokesmen said Tuesday.