Judge keeps door open for disabled bus rider.

Byline: Bob Keefer The Register-Guard

A disabled bus passenger - backed by a bus drivers union whose contract talks with the Lane Transit District have stalled - won a partial court victory Thursday when a judge agreed to consider ordering LTD not to cut daily bus safety inspections from 15 minutes to 10.

Circuit Judge Lyle Velure told Merrill Haggard, an LTD rider who suffers from multiple sclerosis and uses a wheelchair, that he will hold a hearing at 9:30 a.m. next Thursday to decide whether laws protecting passengers, and especially disabled people, require LTD to maintain its current safety inspection schedule.

The transit company has ordered its drivers to begin the abbreviated inspections on Sunday, saying the shortened schedule will save as much as $45,000 a year.

After listening to testimony from an LTD bus driving instructor who said adequate safety inspections could not be done in 10 minutes - and then from an LTD manager who said they could - Judge Velure wrestled with complex Oregon law on the issue and finally concluded that Haggard, the disabled passenger, had the strongest case for legal protection.

Velure denied an immediate restraining order sought by Haggard and three other plaintiffs to prevent LTD from putting the new rules in place on Sunday, saying that Haggard's lawyer, Gene Mechanic, had failed during a three-hour hearing in Velure's court to produce convincing evidence of imminent harm to Haggard or anyone else.

"For the court to (issue the restraining order) at this stage, the court would have to go outside the record and substitute the court's own opinion for evidence," the judge said.

At the hearing, Velure threw out similar requests for an injunction by two other plaintiffs, both LTD employees, citing an Oregon law that prohibits courts from interfering in collective bargaining.

He kept the door open for Haggard and a second LTD passenger, Dorothy Ehli, to continue to seek the injunction at next week's hearing but told both sides in the courtroom that his chief concern was for Haggard.

The abbreviated inspection schedule "could lead to injury to persons such as Mr. Haggard," the judge said.

The judge also bluntly questioned the wisdom of a bus company's cutting back on safety inspections.

"Your clients are opening themselves to substantial exposure (to liability suits)," he chided attorney Rohn Roberts, who represented LTD at the hearing. "I think you ought to talk to them ... and see whether they want to talk to some risk management people."

A spokesman for LTD said the transit company was pleased that the judge denied the immediate restraining order and had thrown out the request of the LTD employees.

"Next week when they have the hearing on the last issue with relation to persons with disabilities, we will be ready for that," LTD spokesman Andy Vobora said.

"The district is committed to the safety of its customers, including people with disabilities."

Haggard, a retired insurance agent, did not testify Thursday. He said after the hearing he was pleased with its outcome.

"Why in the world mess with the time allotment when you are dealing with safety issues?" he said. "Why change something that ain't broke?"

LTD and the Amalgamated Transit Union Division 757, which represents 236 of the transit district's 310 employees, have been negotiating for 10 months without reaching a contract.