Disabled decry crumbling U.S. sidewalks

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- Disabled people forced to take their wheelchairs into the streets because of crumbling U.S. sidewalks are being killed by cars, advocates for the disabled say.

Scott Crawford, a disability-rights advocate, told Monday's USA Today that sidewalks in many cities are in such disrepair that wheelchair-bound people can't use them and must cope with dangerous vehicle traffic while riding in the streets.

"I've been beeped at and honked at and cussed at," by motorists, he told the newspaper, which reported the issue is pitting cash-poor cities against disability activists who say municipalities are violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by letting sidewalks deteriorate.

While there are no specific statistics about the number of accidents involving wheelchairs in streets, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Fatality Analysis Reporting System indicated disabilities were a factor in 617 pedestrian fatalities in 2008.

USA Today cited an incident in Jackson, Miss., in which James Smith, 68, was killed when an SUV, which had been struck by another vehicle, collided with his motorized wheelchair on the city's Medgar Evers Boulevard.