Insurer and motoring group RACQ has lobbied to provide people with visual impairments access to disabled parking at a parliamentary hearing into the Disability Parking Permit Scheme this week.
RACQ’s Paul Turner said the club gave evidence in support to allowing permanently or temporarily (for at least six months) blind people to apply for disability parking permits and use disability parking spaces.
“The current laws prohibiting people with a vision impairment from being able to legally park in disability spots is putting them risk,” Turner said. “This is as much a legal issue as it is a road safety issue. According to Guide Dogs Queensland, 63% of blind and visually impaired Queenslanders have been hit or experienced a near-collision in the past five years and more than 93% were concerned for their safety in carparks. Those are statistics we can’t ignore. New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, and Tasmania already allow people with a vision impairment to be issued a disabled parking permit and it’s about time Queensland followed suit.”
RACQ supported increasing the fine for illegally parking in a disability space without a permit from $266 to $533, but was against introducing demerit points.
“We believe demerit points have a place when it comes to road safety, but not in this case,” Turner said. “What’s more critical is enforcement and education around disability parking. If people think there’s a chance they will be caught for parking illegally in a disabled parking space, they are less likely to do the wrong thing.”
