[nagdu] Palm wasn't the first Guide Dog for the Blind to be trapped by SkyTrain

Ginger Kutsch gingerKutsch at yahoo.com
Thu Oct 14 13:47:31 UTC 2010


Palm wasn't the first Guide Dog for the Blind to be trapped by
SkyTrain 
 By Kim Pemberton 13 Oct 2010 
http://communities.canada.com/VANCOUVERSUN/blogs/puppylove/archiv
e/2010/10/13/palm-wasn-t-the-first-guide-dog-for-the-blind-to-be-
trapped-by-skytrain.aspx
Two weeks ago a horrific accident happened at the Lougheed
SkyTrain station in Burnaby when Iris Thompson, who is blind, was
separated from her guide dog Palm, a five-year-old yellow
Labrador, who was trapped by her leash outside the SkyTrain then
dragged along the moving vehicle until she hit a metal pole and
fell onto the tracks suffering serious injuries. SkyTrain
officials told the media this was the first incident of its kind
in the 24-year history of SkyTrain. But it turns out that  isn't
quite correct.
 
Another service dog for the blind, named Arden, was separated
from his owner Bruce Gilmour,  and trapped outside a train at the
Broadway SkyTrain station. Like Thompson Gilmour, who is blind,
was left helplessly holding his dog's leash on the other side of
the automatic sliding doors. Luckily for Arden,  a Golden
Retriever, fellow passengers responded to Gilmour's request for
help and somehow managed to pry the doors open in time before the
train took off saving Arden from a similar fate to Palm or worse.
 
"It was only because of members of the public my dog wasn't
destroyed. It happened so fast. The dog walked in and stopped. I
said hop up and it wouldn't go because it couldn't move anywhere.
There were people on the train and the entrance was clogged with
luggage. The door cycled closed and opened again then closed. He
backed off on the platform and the leash is stuck in the doorway.
The door didn't open again.
 
"I was in shock. Frightened, telling people I needed help and by
this point the luggage was moved out of the way and somehow the
doors were opened," he said.
 
Gilmour said he was so shaken about the incident, which happend
in 2006,  he contacted TransLink officials requesting they
investigate the incident to ensure all that could be done was
done so this would never happen to another passenger. A
representative from the California-based Guide Dogs For the
Blind, where Arden came from, flew up for a meeting with Gilmour
and TransLink officials. The group visited the station, and went
through a number of scenarios on what could happen to someone
with a disability. Gilmour pointed out at that meeting they
discovered the SkyTrain door sensors wouldn't open if a blind
person's white cane was stuck in the door, for instance.
 
"One of our proposals was they increase the sensitivity of the
door. I was concerned it was going to happen again," he said.
 
Now that Gilmour's fears that another guide dog would be  injured
on SkyTrain has happened, he questions how much has the
technology been adapted for special interest commuter groups,
such as people with disabilities? He also poses a very valid
concern about what is  happening "for improving awareness and
improvements for safety of disabled passengers with a service
dog" and whether an automated transit system fully respond to
passengers with disabilities?
 
Gilmour, by the way, is a friend of Thompson who spoke with her
earlier this week about her hope Palm will be able to return to
an active guiding career.
 
"I sense her frustration right now for she does not have an
'advocate.' Guide Dogs for the Blind, Palm and my dog's school,
are in touch with Iris about how she is feeling and how Palm is
doing and looking ahead in terms of getting Iris back with a
working dog - ideally, Palm. However, her accident is two weeks
old this Thursday and as of this date, SkyTrain has not contacted
her about determining the facts as much as they can be, about
what happened (and) improving awareness and improvements for the
safety of disabled passengers with a service dog,"he said.
 
My next post will be TransLink's response. An interview with the
chair of the Access Users Transit Advisory Committee, Rob Sleath,
who is blind himself and a dog guide user for the past 14 years.
 

 The photos here are of Gilmour and his dog Arden, who
unfortunately passed away a year after the incident from a tumor.
Gilmour is now with guide dog Aurora, also a guide dog from Guide
Dogs for the Blind.
 
   



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