LETTER: Inconsiderate drivers using handicapped parking places

I am concerned about the misuse of handicap parking. I have a legitimate handicap but often have been prevented from using handicap parking places by some who are not handicapped at all.

I was taking a person for whom I care — and who can get around only in a wheelchair — to her eye doctor. There was a handicap spot across from the entrance. As I was about to enter it, a car cut me off. Four teenage girls emerged and ran into the building. I finally found a parking place hundreds of feet away. When I tried to get her out and into her wheelchair, she fell. Had I been in the handicapped parking space, I could have gotten help when she fell. It took me several minutes to pick her up and wheel her hundreds of feet to the entrance.

I would ask those who are not handicapped to refrain from using these spaces with someone else’s handicap placard or license plate. Some of us can walk only a limited distance even with mechanical help. Can something be done to enforce the proper use of handicap spaces?