| Page 2 of 2 < |
A MetroAccess Rider Is Left at the Curb
Elizabeth McKee, 82, said she waited two hours at her doctor's office in Silver Spring for a MetroAccess ride that never appeared. "I was terrified," she said. MetroAccess has said that her reservation was canceled.
(By Nikki Kahn -- The Washington Post)
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
"He insisted it was the right address," McKee said. "I said, 'No, we need to go to Silver Spring.' " A security guard noticed the MV car. At McKee's request, he looked over the driver's schedule and saw that the driver had mistakenly driven to a previous drop-off location.
By the time McKee arrived at the doctor's office, it was 1:38 p.m., well past her appointment time. The office had to fit her in between other appointments, and sometime after 3 p.m., McKee realized she would not be finished in time for her 4 p.m. return trip.
She called MetroAccess to reschedule. After many tries, she finally reached a reservationist, who changed her pickup to 5:30 p.m.
"I was there when she made the phone call to change the time," Randolph said. "They agreed to pick her up at 5:30."
But not long after that call, the doctor's office was informed that a MetroAccess driver was out front, ready to bring McKee home.
"I informed the driver that she had just finished placing a call changing the time," Randolph said. "We just assumed that information had not been relayed to him."
McKee finished her appointment and went to the lobby around 5:15 p.m. to wait for her ride.
"I waited and waited, and it started getting dark," McKee said. She had not eaten since 11 a.m. and felt light-headed, so she lay down on a bench. By 6 p.m., the building was emptying, and the cleaning crew had arrived. Terrified that she would be locked out, she asked a cleaning person to take her back to the doctor's office.
The doctor immediately called MetroAccess. A reservationist told her McKee's pickup was canceled. No, that's wrong, Randolph recalled telling the reservationist. The pickup was rescheduled, she said.
"I told them, 'She's sitting here, waiting for her ride,' " Randolph recalled. The doctor warned the reservationist that the building's front doors would be locked and asked that MetroAccess call her when the driver arrived.
"The person on the other end said they would send someone right away" and confirmed the address, Randolph said. Around that time, McKee said, she also talked to MetroAccess. She said she was told by the reservationist that the driver had gone home and that she had to find another way home.
"I told her about my disabilities. I said I was tired and upset and asked to speak to someone in charge at Metro," McKee said. "She said there's nothing she can do about it."
A dispatch supervisor at MV referred all inquiries to Metro. Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel said it was "not an appropriate response" for someone from MetroAccess to tell McKee to find her own way home, "if this is what allegedly happened."
At 6 p.m., MetroAccess still has drivers on the road, he said, and there were several supervisors in the call center. MV records show her original 4 p.m. pickup was canceled, but there are no records for another return trip, he said. He said he had no information to account for the contradictory information provided by the reservationists.
"We recognize there are still issues that need to be worked out with MV and MetroAccess," Taubenkibel said.
