AUGUSTA, Maine — State laws require those with disabled veteran license plates to also use a placard that has the International Symbol of Access, which is a rolling wheelchair, but one state representative is trying to get rid of that requirement.
“My bill will eliminate that,” said Rep. John Martin, D-Eagle Lake, on Wednesday. Requiring both “didn’t make much sense to me.”
A handicapped military veteran from Caribou who has disabled veteran license plates got a ticket for parking in a restricted spot because he didn’t use his placard. The veteran called Martin, asking him to change the law.
Martin submitted a bill, LD 1555, in December titled “An Act To Require the Bureau of Motor Vehicles To Accept Certification of Disability from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.”
Disabled veteran plates are given to military veterans who have “certification from the United States Veterans Administration or any branch of the United States Armed Forces as to the veteran’s permanent disability and receipt of 100 percent service-connected benefits.”
Those plates, however, are not enough to allow the driver to park in handicapped-restricted parking spots. Drivers also need to display a disability placard, which automatically is issued to them when they get the disabled veteran registration plate.
A Bangor veteran also recently received a $200 parking ticket from one of the city’s parking enforcement personnel, who are not sworn officers, Bangor police Sgt. Paul Edwards said on Wednesday.
“We have a part-time ticket writer,” Edwards said. “He’s a civilian who is new at this. What he did wasn’t wrong.”
That ticket, issued to Korean War veteran Haddy “Phil” Hamm, 76, who uses a walker or cane to get around nowadays, later was revoked, but Hamm said his feelings were hurt when he tried to get the meter man to change his mind about issuing the ticket.
“What upset me was when he [the ticket writer] said those plates aren’t worth nothing,” Hamm said. “I got hurt for those plates. They are good.”
Hamm entered the U.S. Army in 1951 and was injured during training stateside in 1952, just before being deployed to France where he served during the Korean War. He was discharged in 1955.
He said it doesn’t make sense for disabled veterans to have to display the placards, which come with the specialty plates, and he’s glad the proposed bill has been submitted.
“That’s good that they’re doing that,” he said. “I hope they do something with this bill.”
The proposed legislation has been referred to the Legislature’s committee on transportation.