Posted 12/23/2006 05:05:00 PM by Douglas

Trouble's a'brewin' at the ferry

Winters, 76, says his 73-year-old wife, Beverly, is one of dozens of disabled people on the Bolivar Peninsula who find boarding the ferry a challenge since the Texas Department of Transportation stopped issuing medical priority passes in September that allowed them to go to the head of the line.

Beverly Winters and two other disabled Port Bolivar residents are plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed this week in a federal court in Austin seeking to force the highway department to resume issuing medical priority passes.

I just don't get this one. If you have trouble getting around, you get to park closer to the mall. If you can't see, can't hear, can't stand, you get to park closer to the mall. So how does your disability, any disability, get you bumped to the front of the line for a ferry trip to Galveston?

Their medical conditions make waiting in typically long lines to board the ferry intolerable, the lawsuit says.

Beverly Winters is a stroke victim who suffers from incontinence and dementia, her husband says.

Incontinence? Guess what, there's a bathroom on the ferry and dementia? What's the big deal? Sitting in traffic is somehow different than sitting in the line for the ferry? You're waiting, that's it. If you really have that big of a problem with traffic, maybe automobile travel isn't for you.

I know what kind of living hell it's like to deal with people suffering from these conditions, but it's not the state's fault there's a line at the ferry. Giving these people priority at the ferry makes as much sense as letting them run red lights just because they don't want to wait, and I just don't think these conditions warrant firetruck and/or ambulance status.