Disabled Woman Left Stranded for Hours Calls Out Illegal Parking

A wheelchair user raised an outcry online after an illegally parked car blocked her handicap-accessible van, leaving her stranded for hours.

Yvette Pegues arrived at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, on Friday. But instead of driving home after a long journey, she found herself trapped in the airport parking lot, with the handicap-designated area around her car barricaded by another vehicle.

"I can't even get out of the parking lot because my van has been blocked by someone who is illegally parked," she said in a TikTok video documenting her ordeal, which racked up 1.5 million views. "The police department won't do anything, the parking managers won't do anything, I'm out here alone in the dark and can't get home."

"It was pretty traumatic because I planned to be able to get home," Pegues told Newsweek. "My children were waiting for me to get home, my husband was expecting me to get home."

She explained that the "special lift area" or diagonal lines around handicapped parking spots allow passengers to use a ramp, lift or other equipment to get into their cars.

Traveling is already stressful for Pegues, who is paralyzed from the waist down. A traumatic brain injury left her with complications that affected her ability to walk, talk and work. However, she has been cleared to drive through Atlanta's Shepherd Center. The hospital approved her to drive after she completed neurological training and set up an accessible vehicle, which includes a 6-foot ramp.

Usually, according to Pegues, the hardest part of travel is getting on and off the plane. Pegues typically has to be picked up and put down six times on each leg of her flights.

Entrusting a wheelchair to an airline can also be risky. U.S. airlines mishandled 7,148 wheelchairs in 2021, just under 20 a day, according to the Department of Transportation's Air Travel Consumer Report. "Mishandled" wheelchairs include those that were broken, damaged, lost and delayed.ill

But this time, Pegues's largest obstacle was just getting into her car. She immediately tried calling police dispatch, which directed her to call parking managers. But the parking office told her to call the police. That pattern continued for hours, she said.

In the meantime, she endured harassing comments from people who passed by. She continued to call for help.

"I said, 'I'm afraid, I feel unsafe,'" Pegues recounted. "'I'm a woman in a wheelchair—I can't hide, I'm by myself.'"

Finally, she happened to encounter an airport employee who helped transport her off of her flight hours earlier. He alerted a police sergeant, who called for a tow truck to remove the obstructing car. But when the tow truck finally arrived, it did not have the height clearance to enter the parking lot.

After more than four hours, Pegues's husband decided to pick her up. Since his car was smaller, she went home without her mobility equipment. Pegues said she had to return to the airport the next day when the car blocking her was finally towed—18 hours after she arrived in Atlanta.

Her footage from the parking lot went viral, outraging thousands of TikTok viewers.

"If the parking lot company won't do anything, aren't they technically not ADA-compliant and opening themselves up to a lawsuit?" asked one user, referring to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

Another viewer argued, "Don't hide their license plate. Calling people like this out shame them into changing. They do it because they get away with it."

Pegues said that she hoped the visibility of stories like hers would catalyze systemic change.

"I'd like to see the policy changed at the airport, I'd like to see the laws change and I'd like people to see the ADA as the law and not a suggestion," she said.

Newsweek reached out to the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport for comment.