Update: 3:55 p.m.
The four-hour MetroAccess trip for an autistic man may have been caused by a communication problem stemming from the man’s own caretakers, according to Metro.
The agency was told that the caretaker of the autistic man at his Gaithersburg pickup location told the MetroAccess driver that no one was at the man’s Adelphi home, so the driver should go ahead with the next stop, Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said Wednesday.
After picking up the 21-year-old, the driver picked up a second passenger in Suitland, then dropped off that person at L’Enfant Plaza before dropping off the autistic man, Stessel said.
The agency is still investigating the case and looking to confirm the caretaker’s comments, Stessel said.
However, it also is looking into the communications made by the man’s father and whether his questions about his son’s whereabouts were handled correctly by Metro and its contractor, MV Transportation. “We absolutely understand the anxiety about not knowing where your son is,” Stessel said.
Part of the problem may have stemmed from having a subcontracted Regency taxi provide the ride. Such taxis don’t have direct radio access to MetroAccess dispatchers and must go through another layer at the taxi company dispatcher.
No excuse, says Metro. “There should be a line of communication between the MetroAccess dispatcher and Regency to get information in a situation like this,” Stessel said. “That’s our expectation.”
About 5 percent of all of MetroAccess trips are provided by taxis to handle outlier trips on the edge of the region or to fill in for delays of the agency-owned MetroAccess vans.
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A MetroAccess rider was taken on a four-hour ride around the Washington area to cover an approximately 22-mile distance, according to a news report.
The rider’s father tracked his son’s journey by GPS from his cell phone, as first reported by WUSA Channel 9. The trip was supposed to take the austistic rider from Gaithersburg to Adelphi, a distance that should take about 30 minutes without traffic, but the trip took him to downtown D.C. and near Andrews Air Force Base before returning him home.
Now Metro is investigating why the taxi reportedly took such a circuitous route.
Metro contracts with some taxi companies to provide MetroAccess service to disabled riders unable to take the Metro system’s buses and trains. Most of the riders are shuttled around in agency-owned MetroAccess vans, though. No matter what type of vehicle, riders and their advocates have long complained about lengthy and indirect trips.
