To the editor:

2020-2021 has been extremely difficult for the disability community. For two years, I have tried to get legislation passed, working with Rep. Jim Davnie (DFL-Minneapolis) and Sen. Patricia Torres Ray (DFL-Minneapolis). The bills would provide winter safety for walker users as they disembark from buses.

The legislation would require bus driver training to avoid accidents such as the one that injured me a few years ago. I was injured getting off of a Metro Transit bus and spent more than two weeks in the hospital, two months of rehabilitation and wiping out my finances.

I am 85 and have already outlived three fellow activists. I cannot die with this bill in limbo.

My accident was avoidable and Metro Transit needs to understand how failure to remove snow at a bus stop, and how the angle of the bus ramp led to my injuries. But they didn’t stop it. Nor have I been compensated for my injuries.

Joy Rindels Hayden
Minneapolis