Does the Transportation Safety Administration Care? We’ll Soon Find Out.
December 24, 2011
This year’s expected travel volume represents about 30% of the U.S. population according to an article published today in The Los Angeles Times. No doubt many of them will travel by air, and we all know how difficult is has been lately for people with disabilities.
Now, just in time for the onslaught of Christmas travelers, the Transportation Security Administration has unveiled a help line designed to assist travelers with disabilities and special medical needs. It’s a little late for some people, though.
In November, the Transportation Security Administration instituted enhanced safety inspections that allow travelers who are asked to submit to a full-body scan to instead undergo a pat-down, which includes TSA agents using their hands to check areas such as the groin and around the bra. But how well trained are these agents?
Recently, a woman was refused the ability to take her injectable insulin, a needed medication, onboard an airplane with her. She was pregnant and the potential for harm to not only her, but her child as well, was significant. Nevertheless, a TSA agent without medical training or disability knowledge denied her this medication.
Then there’s Lenore Zimmerman, an 84-year-old New York grandmother who said she was injured and humiliated when she was strip searched at an airport after she asked to be patted down instead of going through a body scanner. She’d asked to forgo the screening because she worried it would interfere with her defibrillator. She missed her flight and had to take one two-and-a-half hours later, she said.
And there’s the unnamed woman in Orlando whose colostomy bag was checked for explosives.
To help prevent such incidents and the resulting barrage of criticism comes a new hotline, TSA Cares, (The toll-free number is [855] 787-2227).
If passengers call 72 hours in advance of their trip, TSA Cares will coordinate checkpoint support at the airport.
I look forward to hearing from anyone traveling over in the next few weeks to find out whether this helps make the screening process less traumatic for passengers with disabilities and special medical needs.
Comments
Got something to say?
