Transportation Rolls

Imagine if you can, you or a loved one has a disability and then factor in being confined to your home or an extended care facility. Every day seeing, hearing, smelling the same environment, the same faces, limited change in routines. Mobility for those challenged individuals is an important life quality that when maintained enhances the value and pleasures of daily activities.

One chapter of "The Dale Roy Story" can be written about the continuous service to all clients which allows maximum mobility in our fast-paced, dynamic world. This account is much more than the potentially mundane description of transportation systems. It is more significant than yellow busses, fuel costs, and snow days; it is about providing some of the most basic pleasures for the clients we serve.

The Ashland County Board of MRDD provides services and programs for three hundred families, many of them utilizing year-round transportation. The most obvious means are the nine traditional yellow busses which transports students to Dale Roy School and adults to the DR Services Workshop. The drivers and aides have the enormous task of traveling all of Ashland County in all types of weather. Many of the individuals served have medical conditions which require wheel chair use and/or on-going monitoring. All busses have a driver and aide who are especially trained in first aide, administration of emergency medications, and overall bus safety. Potential drivers and aides both undergo background checks and licensing before moving out on the road.

We can all feel comfortable knowing that Ohio has one of the most stringent, thorough, and enforced list of school bus safety regulations in the country. The Ohio Highway Patrol conducts both annual and unannounced inspections of all busses, and is empowered to immediately remove a bus from service if certain violations are found. This focus on safety and training results in statistics showing that Ohio school busses are twelve times safer than the family car.

Often misunderstood is the amount of time required for one of the MRDD busses to pick up or drop off a client. I am sure all of the readers at one time have been behind one of the busses, nearly late for work, and growing anxious as the seconds tick by. At this moment please remember that there are very strict laws which must be followed to ensure the safety of all involved. It takes approximately four minutes to appropriately load and secure one wheel chair. The time of the stop increases accordingly with more clients who use wheel chairs.

Safety must be maintained, and if a driver chooses to proceed before the stop is completed ("running the lights") the bus driver will record the license number, file a report with the local police department, and an expensive traffic citation may be issued. Many citizens do not realize that a police officer does not have to be present in this situation. Fortunately, the majority of the times the people of Ashland County are patient and understanding of the need for safety.

The cost of transportation is significant with over $100,000 needed annually just to support the service. This amount does not include the personnel cost of drivers, aides, and replacement of busses when needed. A new bus costs approximately $90,000. There is some state and federal assistance but the majority responsibility belongs to the Ashland County Board of MRDD.

However, the essence of this chapter of "The Dale Roy Story" is not about money but about providing the opportunity for those with disabilities to take the journey that is their life. It is very easy to not appreciate mobility and to take for granted the choice of opportunities possible when one can move. Perhaps the easiest way to show the impact of transportation is when it is not available and how all lives are affected.

In Ashland County we have all lived through snow days. As a student it is a gift from above, as a parent a reason for panic about instantly ruined schedules. For those individuals with disabilities perhaps it is more. It is a lost opportunity to experience for that day the sense of pride from work and learning and the joy of friends. If for some reason the transportation services that have been described were gone, for many clients the Board would still have the responsibility to offer compensation to affected families. Even with such assistance many individuals would not be able to participate in Ashland County's MRDD Program, and would be confined to their home.

So you see this chapter really isn't about money or about the equipment or logistics of transportation. It is about the joy and value of going from Point A to Point B and who you see along the way. Something to think about as you wait behind that bus.