Obese Fresno, Calif., Man Fights City for Bus Pass
Randy Frost says Fresno, Calif., refuses to renew his handicap bus pass.
Feb. 18, 2010— -- He may not be a high-profile movie director, but a California man is incensed just the same that his considerable weight has led to him being booted from the same city bus he's ridden for years.
"I've never had a problem -- never, ever had a problem," Randy Frost told ABCNews.com.
At 500 pounds, Frost has used Fresno's Handy Ride bus for nearly three years to get groceries, go shopping and visit his doctors.
The procedure has always been the same -- he uses a cane to board the bus first, using the handicap-accessible ramp. Then the driver loads his motorized chair behind him.
But Frost said he's now being refused a renewal of his Handy Ride pass, told by the city that that his girth and the weight of his motorized chair combined exceed the 600-pound weight limit on the bus' handicap ramp.
Frost estimates the chair -- which he uses because of his severely arthritic hips, not his weight -- weighs about 200 pounds.
As what he sees an added insult, Frost said he was asked to come down to a city office and get weighed and measured by the Department of Transportation and told it was just like on a carnival ride where the operator has to check to make sure the rider fits. He refused.
"This is not a carnival ride," Frost said. "This is something I need to live."
Frost, who was once bedridden for three years before losing more than 200 pounds, said he was told he never should have been allowed on the bus in the first place.
And the 49-year-old former construction worker said he was surprised to hear Fresno Transportation Director Ken Hamm tell ABC's Fresno affiliate KFSN that the city was cracking down on who was allowed on the handicap bus to cut down on costs.
"It just supports my theory that they're grasping at straws to save a buck," he said. "It's humiliating."
Hamm could not immediately be reached for comment, but he told KFSN that the procedure Frost had been going through to board the bus was dangerous.
"It's really a safety factor for the customer and a safety factor for us," he told the station. "We are following the requirement of the Americans with Disabilities Act to the letter on this one."
Frost's not buying it. He said he was never asked to be weighed and measured when he first got the pass nearly three years ago. At the time he had left a nursing home after bringing his weight down from a high of 732 pounds.
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