Kokua Line: Can a company van park in a disabled parking space without a parking permit?

Qask: Ouch to the driver of a plumber’s van who honked at me as I pulled into a restaurant and business parking lot on South King Street. You were parked next to the parking meter, not at the entrance to the parking lot, with no flashing lights indicating that you were pulling into the parking lot. A Mini Cooper backed out of the handicapped space that I didn’t want to take and you drove into it. I didn’t see a handicapped parking placard on your van. My question to Kokua Line: Can a commercial vehicle legally park in a handicapped space without a parking placard?

Answer“Absolutely not,” said Kirby Shaw, executive director of Hawaii’s Disability and Communication Access Board.

“Under Hawaii Revised Statutes §291-57, a vehicle must display a valid disabled parking placard (placard or special license plate) when occupying a reserved accessible parking space. Failure to do so may result in a citation and a fine of up to $500. This applies to both business and personal vehicles,” added Bryan Mick, DCAB’s Program and Policy Development Coordinator.

Under HRS-291-51, “parking space reserved for persons with disabilities” means “a public or private parking space, including the access road, that is designated for use by a person with a disability, that is designed and constructed in accordance with the requirements of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as amended, and related rules and regulations, and that is marked with a sign indicating the parking space as reserved for persons with disabilities.”

If the space does not meet those standards, it does not count as an official handicapped parking space and anyone is allowed to park there, which appears to be the case in the parking lot you mentioned. A Google Images search of the address shows a parking space next to the building that is marked with a stencil of a wheelchair on the sidewalk (which is not required by law), but it lacks the required access road and vertical signage. So while the spot follows the spirit of the law by providing parking close to the building entrance, it does not meet the letter of the law and the driver of the plumber’s van did not risk a fine.

Other laws require that public accommodations, such as businesses, schools, and government agencies, provide legally compliant accessible parking, and that includes the King Street lot. DCAB has online resources at health.hawaii.gov/dcab to help parking lot owners properly design and build handicapped spaces, and it also has an online form (808ne.ws/psreport) that people can use to report apparent violations.

“If we receive a submission with enough information or photos to determine that the parking space is likely non-compliant, we will attempt to contact the property owner,” Mick said of the lot you visited.

“The property owner is primarily responsible for ensuring that the property complies with the Americans with Disabilities Accessibility Guidelines and state law. The Department of Justice has jurisdiction over ADAAG. DCAB will attempt to provide the property owner with some technical guidance on what their obligations are, but we are not an enforcement agency,” he said, noting that DCAB supports state legislation that would allow counties to authorize county building or planning authorities and/or inspectors to investigate and enforce these types of violations in a timely manner, during the normal course of their business.

Although a bill seeking such authorization was defeated by the Legislature this year, DCAB plans to try again next session, Shaw said.

Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, HI 96813; call 808-529-4773; or email [email protected].