Anonymous wrote:
Sussex wrote:
As the law allows exemptions to those unable to load wheelchairs, provided they have a doctors note, I feel it's a bit rich Bristol council making their own statutes up.
Bristol arnt making up thier own statutes they are ensuring drivers are medically fit, and thats thier job.
if you cannot do a duty then you should not have to
medical exemption indeed.
This is my very first post on this subject and it will probably be my last. In response to some of the points raised I would justy like to point out
a few observations.
I suppose there are many different levels of medical fitness just as there are different shapes and sizes of the population. Here in Manchester we used to have a driver who only had one hand. We also have some women licensed who weigh no more than 8 or 9 stone. Would it be reasonable to perhaps put these ladies health at risk by asking them to push and manoeuvre a wheelchair with a heavy occupant who is perhaps twice their bodyweight?
How accountable should a driver be if a wheelchair passenger has a self inflicting accident while travelling alone in the back of the cab? Under the circumstances should a driver be allowed to refuse a wheelchair passenger or any other vulnerable person for that matter travelling alone without supervision?
I believe the legal grounds for refusing to carry vulnerable unaccompanied passengers has yet to be tested in a court of law but I have no doubt that sooner or later it will.
With regard to the Bristol Licensing officers interpretation of the phrase "Fit and proper" it would seem that he is trying to draw an inference that the 1847 wording of Fit can somehow be associated with the term Fit as in Medical Fitness.
The phraseology of the 1847 act as adopted by the 1976 act has nothing whatsoever to do with Medical fitness.
The words “Fit and Proper” in the meaning of the 1847 act refer to a persons character, not their medical fitness. Perhaps if they had the DD.ACT and wheelchair accessible vehicles back in 1847 things might have been a little different. However, I believe a court would look at the meaning and the intention of the 1847 act and not at how some licensing officer in Bristol might wish to interpret it.
I noticed Bristol were a bit shy in defining a maximum weight of what a driver should reasonably be expected to push.
Here in Manchester we don’t need to be coerced into supplying wheelchair accessible vehicles because we licence nothing but. However, for those who dislike the time consumption and inconvenience of carrying wheelchair bound passengers they will probably say that “you can take a Horse to Water but you can’t make it drink”.
Best wishes
JD
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