Transport in a rural area such as the Far North is an issue for a lot of people.
It was great to see a story about disability issues on the front page of the Northern Advocate last Saturday, and what a story it was.
In a nutshell, Bryce McFall from Tauranga who is a wheelchair user, was en route to his mate’s place in Ahipara for a spot of fishing. As he drove his van down the Mangamukas, his engine malfunctioned and he lost his brakes and power steering. He averted disaster by running the van into the bank.
Luckily, Bryce and his caregiver were unscathed. He was, however, stranded for hours as emergency services could not locate a wheelchair-accessible vehicle to collect him in. Eventually his friend, Kevin Griffiths, from Ahipara, arrived with his wheelchair accessible van and picked him up.
The article intrigued me on so many levels.
The nightmare scenario of careering down the Mangamukas without brakes or power steering was gripping, the irony of not being able to find a wheelchair accessible vehicle when the obvious answer was at Bryce’s destination was alarming, and the accompanying photo of both buddies in customized beach electric wheelchairs was fascinating.
I smiled when I read his mate, who intuitively knew his cobber was in the shtuck, saved the day.
I was also perplexed about the photo of the two fishermen cruising Ninety Mile Beach on these insane tank-like electric wheelchairs. My intrigue prompted me to ring Kevin.
It turns out Kevin owns a business called ‘Chem Care’ which manufactures and sells 6x6 all terrain electric wheelchairs that people can use for beach and farm access, enabling them to do those much treasured kiwi activities, hunting and fishing.
Apparently, Bryce did ask the emergency services to ring Kevin but – apparently – this never happened. It was Kevin’s intuition that something was amiss that finally saved the day.
The story in Saturday’s Advocate focused on emergency services not being able to locate a vehicle that could accommodate Bryce and his 170kg electric wheelchair. The situation was exacerbated by a lack of cellphone coverage in the Mangamukas.
Transport in a rural area such as the Far North is an issue for a lot of people but, for wheelchair users, the options are very limited. In Whangarei, we have a scheme where people with mobility impairments can get discounts on taxis called Total Mobility, which is a nation-wide scheme. It offers clients a 50 per cent discount on taxi fares for transport in the Whāngārei urban area.
The scheme is administered by the Northland Regional Council and funded by the Whāngārei District Council (60per cent) and NZ Transport Agency (40 per cent). It used to be well utilised but demand has dwindled.
The taxi industry seems to be under strain in New Zealand. There have recently been articles in the paper citing people waiting for taxi’s for hours late at night. There is a current survey being run by the Northland Regional Council to ascertain what the issues are. I strongly encourage everyone who belongs to the scheme to participate in the survey.
To me, last weekend’s adventure offers up the opportunity of utilising the disabled community’s resources to solve some transport needs in the Far North. I agreed with Fire Chief Colin Kitchen’s opinion that, at the very minimum, there should be a list of wheelchair accessible vehicles available to emergency services.
If you run a wheelchair accessible vehicle in the Far North please feel free to drop us a line at Tiaho (jonny@tiaho.org.nz). I'd hate someone else to miss out on good fishing time being stuck in the hills!
I also talked to Bryce who is back in Tauranga after his action-packed Easter. As suggested in the Advocate's article, he is an unassuming down-to-earth bloke who just wanted a cruise in a tank-like wheel chair along the beautiful Ninety Mile Beach, catching up with a great mate while, of course, catching a big fish.
I am happy to report that despite making the front page of the paper this is indeed what he achieved. Now that's the kind of excitement he was looking for on his holiday!
Downloadable pdf below:
| Available Downloads | Type | Size |
|---|---|---|
| Adventure opens up new opportunities - A Different Light | 427 KB |