LOS ANGELES — Three civil rights groups are suing Los Angeles County's transit agency and a company it contracts with for allegedly failing to meet the transportation needs of tens of thousands of disabled riders. The American Civil Liberties Union, Western Law Center, and Protection and Advocacy Inc. filed suit in U.S. District Court on Thursday on behalf of six disabled riders who say they have waited for hours to be picked up and have sometimes been left stranded without a ride. The groups are seeking class-action status for the lawsuit, saying as many as 41,000 Southern Californians are affected.
They say the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Access Services Inc., which provides almost all of the MTA's transportation for the disabled, are violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. The law requires that a transit agency provide so-called paratransit service that is "comparable" to its regular public transportation.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs say that means disabled people should not be required to wait any longer than anyone else for a ride, should not have to book one any further in advance and should be able to take public transportation to any place the general public can.
Transportation officials defend their system, saying they are constantly working with riders to improve service. Access Services has a solid record, with 93 percent of rides arriving on time, said its executive director, Richard DeRock.
"Sure it's not perfect. Sometimes the ride never shows up or runs late. But that's an extremely small amount, maybe 30 people a day," said DeRock, who estimates that between 6,500 and 7,000 people use Access Services each day.
The MTA said it monitors the company's paratransit operations closely. "We don't just hand out the money to them. We monitor the work and audit them. They say that they have had some problems but considering what they've done, they've done pretty well," said MTA spokesman Marc Littman.
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