Rider’s Profile: Alan Welsh (a Vespa-riding amputee)
Though we wish it doesn’t exist, DISCRIMINATION still happens all around us. Abled people dscriminating against the disabled (or ‘differently-abled’, if you want to be politically correct); car drivers against motorcycle riders and vice versa. Earlier this year, there was even that article entitled “Those Menace on Two Wheels” which appeared in Top Gear Philppines which caused calls to ban the magazine among the local motorcycle community. The publisher responded to the issue and the writer eventually apologized.
Our featured rider for today is a man who got fined for parking his Vespa in the disabled parking space depite being a disabled person himself. A case of discrimination, ignorance or an honest mistake? You be the judge.
image & info from York Press
rider: Alan Welsh
ride: an automatic Vespa
homebase: Navigation Road, York, England
more about the rider: Alan Welsh is right leg amputee and lost it through diabetes. He wears an artificial leg and rides an automatic Vespa as he cannot ride anything with gears or foot brake. Recently, he landed in the news for being fined £25 for parking his scooter in the disabled parking spaces. The parking attendant’s office said those spaces were solely for the disabled who drives a car not bike riders.
After appealing against the ticket, the company has already admitted its error and Mr. Welsh’s ticket has since been cancelled. [read details here]
Ride on!
-o-
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J0HNRANA
john[dot]rana[at]gmail[dot]com
