KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Another ramp on Pershing Road near Union Station is receiving complaints, but this time, a man in a wheelchair was injured.
The incident happened on Feb. 10 at Pershing and Kessler roads. Tony Waterhouse-Leal was on his way to work out at a CrossFit gym nearby when his wheelchair got stuck in a crack, causing him to fall out and injure himself.
"As you see here, I had to kind of roll down the ramp and I stopped, and then the chair got stuck and I proceeded to give it more power," Waterhouse-Leal told 41 Action News on Thursday. "The chair lunged forward and threw me out."
He's not the first person to encounter issues at a ramp on Pershing Road near Union Station. 41 Action News previously reported on a similar problem curb at Pershing and Broadway Street after a woman who uses a power wheelchair said she has to go around the curb in order to get onto the sidewalk.
Waterhouse-Leal, who has cerebral palsy and has used a wheelchair his whole life, said he was taken to the hospital after falling and had to have three to four stitches in his forehead. He also had to take a few days off work.
While he said it "could have been a whole lot worse," he hopes the incident is a wake-up call to city leaders.
"Especially in the downtown area, where it's highly trafficked, and to be right across from Union Station, an area that's a focal point for Kansas City, certainly I think that's an area that would be looked at more carefully," Waterhouse-Leal said. "It can be pretty dangerous for someone in a wheelchair. All it takes is an inch or two, quarter-inch for the wheelchair to get stuck in a hole or in a groove."
On the curb at Pershing and Broadway, the city has said it is working to get the work contracted out sometime later this year. City officials conducted a site visit and determined the scope of the repair work. Because the ramp is located on a bridge dock, the repairs must be done by a specific type of contractor who has experience in that work.
On Thursday, a spokeswoman for the KCMO Public Works Department said the ramp at Pershing and Kessler roads is not on the list of curbs to be replaced due to non-compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
"This location is not on our existing ADA curb replacement list because it already has a ramp that met previous design standards (before the 2010 standards were implemented)," the city said in the statement. "However, safety issues are always a concern on our roadways and sidewalks. We will investigate locations where it poses a hazard to our community as in this case, so we are working to coordinate this location for repair as an add-on to a future contract."
For his part, Waterhouse-Leal said he has reached out to city leaders and hopes to work with them on a solution.
"These challenges are just things we have to overcome as a city and figure out how we can make it better for everybody," Waterhouse-Leal said.
