Family of DATS user urges communication policy change after bus was stuck in snow for hours

The sister of an Edmonton woman who was stranded for hours on a stuck bus used by people with disabilities wants the city service to change its communication policies in times of delay.

Terenia Maidens said sister Mikhayla Winnyk and her support worker were stuck for several hours Tuesday on a Dedicated Accessible Transit Service (DATS) bus after it, and the tow truck sent to assist it, became lodged in a snow-bound northside cul-de-sac.

Maidens told CTV News Edmonton on Wednesday that she called DATS an hour and a half after Winnyk, who uses a wheelchair, was due home and was told only that she was on her way.

Two hours later, Maidens managed to get in touch with Winnyk’s support worker, who told her where they were located.

“If I knew that they were stuck and still waiting, and it would be an hour for a tow truck, we would have come a lot sooner to get her,” Maidens said, adding that “something needs to change” in DATS’s process in such situations.

“I get it, (the roads are) bad, but something else needs to happen to get them off the bus, to get the bus moving,” she said. “Some contact should have been made to the family after they waited for so many hours. Just to be sitting for three hours with nothing is ridiculous. It’s not humane.”

Full article: https://www.ctvnews.ca/edmonton/article/family-of-dats-user-urges-communication-policy-change-after-bus-was-stuck-in-snow-for-hours/