Where I Stand - Mike O'Callaghan: First-class transportation for people in wheelchairs

JUST HOW GREEDY can some licensed limousine businesses be? Greedy enough to be called hoggish if they continue their move to block competition or what they believe is competition. The latest example of this is Bell Trans and Presidential Limousine, along with Badly Scattered Land and Cattle Co. doing business as Medic Coach Service, objecting to the licensing of Bill Bauers' KUMA of Nevada doing business as AKA.

Bauers, himself a quadriplegic in a VA hospital this week, has designed and built a luxury limousine for other wheelchair-bound people. That's right, there will no longer be a need for people in wheelchairs to arrive at a fancy party in a van or some other makeshift vehicle. Bill's limousine is first class all the way and a form of quality transportation that our convention-centered town can brag about. There sure aren't any comparable limousines for people in wheelchairs.

Presidential Limousine admits in a fax to Bauers that "while we do not have any limos that can accommodate a wheelchair in the passenger compartment we do transport many physically challenged customers inside the cabin with minimal problems."

Despite this admission, the Bell Trans and Presidential Limousine protests licensing Bauers' AKA by writing, "Petitioners are informed and thereon allege that Applicant seeks to provide some of the same service currently provided by Petitioners and, therefore, Petitioners have a direct and substantial interest in these proceedings and may be adversely affected by the granting of this application."

This can be easily answered by driving up Bell's best and Bauers' limousine to determine that there is really no competition. The Badly Scattered Land and Cattle Co. should be invited to do the same. Allow some of the people in wheelchairs to determine whether there is any reasonable comparison.

Thomas Countee, executive director of the National Spinal Cord Association, wrote upon hearing of Bauers' limousine, "The exciting news that there is finally a luxury limousine at the availability of handicapped/disabled people is of great importance to us.

"We feel that the ability to upgrade the quality of life for the handicapped/disabled persons in our sphere of influence is a positive move forward in the area of transportation.

"Those of us who are totally or partially confined to wheelchairs will find this a great luxury in entertaining family and friends and in travel within major metropolitan areas.

"We would like to and will take full advantage of all luxury transportation at our disposal."

Bob Yant of the American Paralysis Association writes, "Such a 'barrier busting' proposition for disabled people was presented to me by Bill Bauers. Although limousines can be used by transferring from one's wheelchair into the vehicle, no limousine exists which is accessible to people while sitting in their wheelchair.

"Using one's wheelchair is almost always preferable to transferring and sitting in another seating situation, such as an automobile seat. People with disabilities have spasms and other medical conditions such as seating properly to avoid pressure sores, which are almost always more easily controlled when sitting in one's customized chair.

"By allowing a disabled person to use a limousine while using their own wheelchair, disabled people will be granted dignity and respect in an area which has been previously denied."

My friends in the Paralyzed Veterans of America are no strangers to Las Vegas. Joseph L. Fox Sr. of PVA reminds us of this when writing, "In my travels I have the opportunity several times a year, whether it be for business or pleasure, to visit Las Vegas. Once a year during September, at the Riviera Hotel, a large group attends a weeklong seminar.

"There are also a large number of wheelchair users that fly into Las Vegas for this meeting and it would give them the opportunity to know there is other transportation, other than what already is available, and limited at certain times."

It all boils down to severely handicapped visitors having an opportunity to live it up in style when visiting Southern Nevada. AKA Limousine Service will also allow residents, like me, to entertain properly our friends from military service who now are confined to wheelchairs. Until last week I hadn't seen any form of transportation that could be favorably compared with Bauers' new limousine. His limo is not only attractive, it's just what a person in a wheelchair has dreamed about.

I would suggest that the big outfits just back off and take no more advantage of a bad law that allows them to intervene and hold up the licensing of Bill Bauers' AKA. They have nothing that equals what he has designed for his fellow paraplegics, and they should be ashamed for interfering with his company.

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