Cynthia Attao, who works for the DPS administration office, said she called Call-A-Ride because she needed a ride from her home in Kagman 3. She wanted to watch a movie in San Jose with the other members of the CNMI Center for Independent Living.
But the Call-A-Ride vehicle’s lifter would not work.
She said the driver then told her to just stay at home.
“I could not go back inside because the house was already locked and my husband was away,” she said.
They finally “worked it out” and she did get a ride, “but the air-con system was down, and it was so hot inside the van,” Attao said.
After watching the movie, she called Call-a-Ride again but this time, the vehicle’s lifter “would not just work.”
“No one fixed the lifter, and the driver told me I could not get a ride anymore so I was left with no choice but to drive my wheelchair from the movie house all the way to the 13 Fishermen Monument in Garapan under the scorching heat of the sun,” Attao said.
“I would just like to get the attention of those concerned that a lot of us are relying on Call-A-Ride services to do errands,” Attao said.
She has been using Call-A-Ride since 2001 to get to and from work and she said it was not the first time that the service vehicle encountered problems.
Pam C. Sablan, executive director for the CNMI Assistive Technology Program of the Council on Developmental Disabilities, told the Variety yesterday that Saturday’s incident involving Attao was an unfortunate one.
Sablan said the program has three vans, one of which is brand new, but they are still waiting for some spare parts to make it operational.
She said the air-conditioning unit of one of the two other vans had to be repaired but the service shop was closed on Saturday afternoon.
The vehicle that fetched Attao had a faulty lifter, she added, but they will bring it to the shop for the necessary repairs soon.
“We are very sorry for what happened. As much as possible we would like to give our clients the best service but sometimes, things that are beyond our control happen,” Sablan said.
They are looking for funds to secure another van for the program, she added.
“It would be good to have four vans to pick up and drop off our clients, but we are still working on it,” she said.
Sablan said they are also looking at getting a private provider to service their clients.
A private provider will maintain its own fleet and does not need to undergo a long process of submitting requests for spare parts and repairs, she added.
The program, which is under the CNMI Council on Developmental Disabilities, serves four to five regular clients each day, and about 10 or more patients for dialysis and other medical schedules on any given day.
