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Larry Holmes delivers knockout at Polish American Veterans Club

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Event raises funds, awareness of ALS

<p>Treat your disability as a privilege, Cathy Fusco has been told. After all, someone once said, just look at the great parking you get.</p><p>At just about three feet tall, Fusco, 55, has an acute genetic disorder underlined by brittle bones and stunted growth. She also has a thick skin.</p><p>Fusco was born with the disorder. The latter, she developed on her own.</p><p>A Pittston Township resident, Fusco earned the thick skin after enduring countless barbs about the advantages others claim her disability grants her, when on an almost daily basis she fights for essential parking spaces often taken illegally by others but designated &#8212; and dictated by law &#8212; for disabled persons like her.</p><p>The jokes, she said, were just part of the frustration.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve had people say, &#8216;Oh, how lucky you are to be able to park so close,&#8217;&#8221; Fusco said. &#8220;Yeah, I&#8217;m real lucky I get to park in a handicapped spot.&#8221;</p><p>Fusco&#8217;s struggle, and that of others in the region, is pitted against a sluggish statewide effort from law enforcement to police handicapped parking violators, aided by the ease in which disability identifications can be obtained.</p><p><strong>Fusco&#8217;s frustrations</strong></p><p>Several times a week, Fusco, who gets around in a power wheelchair and uses a special conversion van with a built-in ramp to run errands, said she squares off against able-bodied drivers who clog handicapped spaces.</p><p>&#8220;Basically, when I go to park, I want to find an end spot or a spot that is van accessible,&#8221; explained Fusco, who was born with osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), better known as brittle bone disease. &#8220;I need clearance to get out of the van. With that being said, many times I come out and someone not disabled will be parked in the blue lines and I can&#8217;t get into my vehicle.&#8221;</p><p>Sometimes she&#8217;ll wait it out and bite her tongue when the driver returns. Other times, at her wits&#8217; end, Fusco snaps.</p><p>When confronting motorists, Fusco has been intimidated, shouted at, accosted and even told to relax. &#8220;&#8216;What&#8217;s the big deal? I was in there for five minutes,&#8217; people have said.&#8221;</p><p>Rocco Iacullo, an attorney with the Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania, said the issue accounts for a small percentage of the organization&#8217;s calls but when they do come in, he encourages those affected to avoid confrontation.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s certainly an issue that comes up from time to time,&#8221; said Iacullo, who is disabled. &#8220;It&#8217;s one that there really is not a foolproof solution to other than for people to call the non-emergency number for local police so they can come out and ticket.&#8221;</p><p>But police, Fusco said, often seem reluctant to ticket violators.</p><p>&#8220;The cops don&#8217;t want to pursue it,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t think they feel that this is that big of an issue.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Enforcement data</strong></p><p>The numbers seem to back up Fusco&#8217;s belief.</p><p>Provided to the Times Leader from the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts (AOPC), statewide data from public traffic dockets shows 4,367 violations of the state motor vehicle code relating to handicapped parking citations. The data, which excludes Philadelphia County, was recorded between Aug. 16, 2013, and Aug. 16, 2015.</p><p>In Luzerne County, 28 total violations were recorded over the two-year period. Half of those occurred in Wilkes-Barre City (14) while a quarter (7) were recorded in Nanticoke.</p><p>Just one of the violations, issued in Ashley on June 11, 2014, was for &#8220;unauthorized use&#8221; in which the driver bears either a disability license plate or placard but doesn&#8217;t have a handicap. Statewide, just 50 such citations were issued during the two-year period.</p><p>The remaining offenders were cited for parking in handicapped spaces without proper plates or placards, notices drivers must display while using a handicapped space.</p><p><strong>Officers &#8216;act accordingly&#8217;</strong></p><p>Law enforcement officials recognize the issue but said they simply don&#8217;t receive significant outcry about it.</p><p>Officer John Curham, commander of operations for the Wilkes-Barre Police Department, said he doesn&#8217;t believe officers are ignoring the problem or failing to take proper action.</p><p>&#8220;Whenever anybody calls about this, we respond and we issue the citations accordingly,&#8221; Curham said. &#8220;It&#8217;s just we&#8217;re not being contacted that often about this practice.&#8221;</p><p>Curham said he couldn&#8217;t put a number on the amount of calls the department gets on the issue.</p><p>&#8220;We receive very few complaints about somebody taking up a handicapped spot,&#8221; Curham said. &#8220;It&#8217;s not like we&#8217;re riding around looking for it. If somebody has a spot and they call in the complaint, we respond to it. We act accordingly and issue the citation.&#8221;</p><p>If convicted, a person violating either regulation is guilty of a summary offense and faces a fine of no less than $50 or no more than $200.</p><p>Sgt. Mark Hampton, an officer with the Wilkes-Barre Township Police Department, said while officers make regular rounds in area parking lots, the department receives a call on the issue &#8220;maybe once a week&#8221; &#8212; despite the township&#8217;s slew of handicapped parking offered by retailers like those in the Wyoming Valley Mall, Arena Hub Plaza and Wilkes-Barre Township Marketplace.</p><p>&#8220;We don&#8217;t have a whole lot of violations,&#8221; Hampton said. &#8220;Some here and there of people parking in handicapped spots that aren&#8217;t privileged to park there. Our biggest issue is those who do have placards but don&#8217;t display them properly.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Placard problem?</strong></p><p>While the number of active disability plates issued by PennDOT has dropped by over 11 percent since 2010, placards have been trending in the opposite direction, spiking in abundance by over 9 percent, according to data from the state Department of Motor Vehicles.</p><p>While each requires a completed PennDOT application, notarization and approval from a certified health care provider to obtain, renewal of the placards, good for five-year terms, only requires an applicant provide their name, address, photo ID number and signature. Notarization is not required for renewal.</p><p>In his practice in the Philadelphia region, Iacullo said he didn&#8217;t get a lot of calls about people using placards that shouldn&#8217;t be, but acknowledged &#8220;that&#8217;s not to say it doesn&#8217;t happen.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;(Fraud) is going to be pretty difficult to solve,&#8221; he explained. &#8220;The law was amended within the last 10 years in terms of certification required to obtain a placard. Instead of a doctor, you can have a nurse or physical therapist certify (disabilities) now.&#8221;</p><p>Making them even easier to obtain, fake placards that appear similar at a glance have also surfaced for sale online.</p><p>To combat phony placards, at least three states &#8212; Massachusetts, New Mexico and South Carolina &#8212; require the card to display a person&#8217;s photo.</p><p>But Fusco, who believes people often exaggerate minor injuries to coax doctors into signing off on placards, said those items should be eliminated all together.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been to places where I know people use grandma and daddy&#8217;s handicapped placard,&#8221; she said. &#8220;The placard situation needs to be voided.&#8221;</p><p>In just over three hours last week, a reporter surveying parking lots at three local businesses found two motorists parked in handicapped spaces without plates or placards.</p><p>When approached by the reporter, one man shouted that he had &#8220;an [expletive] heart condition&#8221; before walking off into a store. The other said he recently had surgery and showed the reporter a large gash on his leg.</p><p>The man said he had a placard, but left it in another vehicle.</p><p><strong>Daily hassle</strong></p><p>Angela Bartol, along with her husband and two daughters, circled the parking lot of Walmart in Wilkes-Barre Township several times, coming up short on finding an open handicapped spot until settling for a space several rows toward the back of the crowded lot.</p><p>It was more of the same for Bartol, who told her husband to go into the store himself while she sat in the car.</p><p>&#8220;It happens quite often, daily, I&#8217;d say,&#8221; she said of settling for regular parking spots. &#8220;It does get frustrating.&#8221;</p><p>Bartol, 42, has diabetic neuropathy coupled with herniated and degenerated discs in her back. She depends on the handicapped spots near a businesses entrance because her legs, she said, often go numb and give out on her when walking.</p><p>Bartol wasn&#8217;t surprised to learn just one such violation was issued in her home town of Hazleton in the past two years.</p><p>&#8220;That&#8217;s really annoying because you know that they&#8217;re not really handicapped and they&#8217;re parked there. And nobody does anything about it,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I think the police need to enforce it. I think they need to come out and they need to just randomly check parking spots.&#8221;</p><p>Like Fusco, Bartol said she&#8217;s self-policed the issue and has even taken matters into her own hands on several occasions.</p><p>Iacullo said that approach can be fraught with mistake.</p><p>&#8220;There are a lot of invisible disabilities where people might have a heart condition and if you go up to them you may think they don&#8217;t have a physical disability, and you question them. That could spell trouble,&#8221; he said.</p><p>But Fusco said she can&#8217;t always depend on others to do the right thing.</p><p>&#8220;Seeing it all the time like I do,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It almost makes you not want to go anywhere.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/handicapped21.pdf">
<div class="neCaption"></div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/handicapped21.pdf</photo0><caption0></caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTL083015handicapped11.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Angela Bartol speaks with a reporter from her vehicle, which her husband had to park several rows from the entrance of a local business last week. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTL083015handicapped11.jpg</photo1><caption1>Angela Bartol speaks with a reporter from her vehicle, which her husband had to park several rows from the entrance of a local business last week. </caption1><photoCredit1>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTL083015handicapped21.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Angela Bartol, 42, of Hazleton, waits for her husband to shop in Walmart after the couple could not find a parking space close enough to the store for Angela to walk. Bartol said it&#8217;s a routine the couple goes through &#8216;daily.&#8217; </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTL083015handicapped21.jpg</photo2><caption2>Angela Bartol, 42, of Hazleton, waits for her husband to shop in Walmart after the couple could not find a parking space close enough to the store for Angela to walk. Bartol said it&#8217;s a routine the couple goes through &#8216;daily.&#8217; </caption2><photoCredit2>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTL083015handicapped31.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">A car at a local business was seen parked half in a handicapped spot and half in the area where a van could let down a ramp. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTL083015handicapped31.jpg</photo3><caption3>A car at a local business was seen parked half in a handicapped spot and half in the area where a van could let down a ramp. </caption3><photoCredit3>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit3></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTL083015handicapped41.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">A sign posted in the parking lot of a local business clearly states violators of handicapped parking laws will be fined and/or towed. Just 28 such violations were issued in Luzerne County since August 2013. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo4>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTL083015handicapped41.jpg</photo4><caption4>A sign posted in the parking lot of a local business clearly states violators of handicapped parking laws will be fined and/or towed. Just 28 such violations were issued in Luzerne County since August 2013. </caption4><photoCredit4>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit4></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTL083015handicapped51.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">After making a few laps through the Wal Mart parking lot 84 year old Louise Dennis was able to find a handicap spot. 8/26/2015 Aimee Dilger|Times Leader</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo5>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTL083015handicapped51.jpg</photo5><caption5>After making a few laps through the Wal Mart parking lot 84 year old Louise Dennis was able to find a handicap spot. 8/26/2015 Aimee Dilger|Times Leader</caption5><photoCredit5>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit5></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTL083015handicapped_jd_31.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">The driver&#8217;s seat of Cathy Fusco&#8217;s Dodge Grand Caravan is equipped with special hand controls. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo6>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTL083015handicapped_jd_31.jpg</photo6><caption6>The driver&#8217;s seat of Cathy Fusco&#8217;s Dodge Grand Caravan is equipped with special hand controls. </caption6><photoCredit6>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit6></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTL083015handicapped_jd_11.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Cathy Fusco, of Pittston Township, gets around in her power wheelchair at the Midway Shopping Center in Wyoming. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo7>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTL083015handicapped_jd_11.jpg</photo7><caption7>Cathy Fusco, of Pittston Township, gets around in her power wheelchair at the Midway Shopping Center in Wyoming. </caption7><photoCredit7>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit7></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Enforcement lags behind victims&#8217; struggles</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Joe Dolinsky</p><p>jdolinsky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>Violations in Luzerne County by arresting agency:</strong></p><p>Wilkes-Barre City: 14</p><p>Nanticoke: 7</p><p>West Pittston: 2</p><p>Ashley: 1</p><p>Wilkes-Barre Township: 1</p><p>Butler Township: 1</p><p>Hazleton: 1</p><p>Newport Township: 1</p><p><strong>Total violations by county:</strong></p><p>Columbia: 24</p><p>Luzerne: 28</p><p>Lackawanna: 60</p><p>Monroe: 66</p><p>Wayne: 4</p><p>Wyoming: 4</p><p><em>Source: Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts</em></p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Joe Dolinsky at 570-991-6110 or on Twitter @JoeDolinskyTL</p></shirttailMeta></div>

For handicapped motorists, parking in Luzerne County an ongoing obstacle