PASSENGER COMPARTMENT -
SPECIAL FACILITIES
42
The passenger compartment is fitted with
equipment specially designed to assist
passengers with special needs to travel in safety
and comfort. The left hand occasional seat can
be swivelled into the door aperture and used in
conjunction with a simply installed additional
step to assist the entry of passengers with
restricted movement.
Provision has also been made to accommodate
most type of hand operated and some power
assisted four wheeled wheel chairs. The rear
seat cushions are hinged to assist wheel chair
entry, and to allow one side of the seat to be
used by another passenger, while leaving
additional space available for the wheel chair
user when required.
To assist in loading a wheel chair, an integral
ramp is provided in the passenger compartment
floor. The additional step mentioned previously
also acts as an extension for the integral ramp
where the kerb loading height is low.
It is essential that the equipment is used with
care and that the loading and unloading
procedures are correctly followed. In all cases
reassure the passenger about the equipment, by
explaining how it is to be used, and protect your
passenger by ensuring they do not contact the
door aperture etc., as they manoeuvre into, and
out of the vehicle.
GENERAL PRECAUTIONS
1. Wheelchairs must always be carried in the
recess to the left hand side of the centre division
with the passenger facing the rear of the vehicle.
The wheelchair restraining belt, passenger seat
belt, and extender belt provided must always be
used.
WARNING: Never carry a wheelchair
passenger unrestrained, positioned
sideways or facing forwards as the
wheelchair and passenger cannot be
adequately restrained in these positions.
2. Wheelchair passengers must always be
secured with the seat belt and extender belt
provided, as the wheelchair restraint belt does
not provide adequate security to the passenger.
The seat belt should be threaded through the
wheel chair as necessary so that it lies over the
passenger’s right shoulder before being clipped
into the extender belt and routed across the
passenger’s pelvis to clip into the lower buckle.
The belt should never be fitted across the top of
the wheelchair arm rests.
3. Even under light braking, acceleration and
cornering, an unrestrained wheelchair occupant
can fall out of the wheelchair. While wheelchair
brakes should be applied when the chair has
been correctly positioned in the vehicle, they are
not an adequate restraining system.
4. Harsh driving can cause many disabled
people to slide in their wheelchairs; often they
are unable to reposition themselves and this can
cause discomfort or even physical damage. It is
therefore extremely important to try to avoid
hard acceleration, braking or cornering.
5. To prevent any risk of the wheelchair user
falling out of the wheelchair, the wheelchair
should only be loaded or unloaded with the
passenger facing the vehicle using the left hand
door (and ramps as required-see below).
6. Load a wheel chair passenger where the
road and kerb are level. It is always preferable to
pick up wheel chair passengers at a kerb so that
the integral wheel chair ramp may be used
without its extension.
CAUTION: Where there is no kerb, or
the kerb height is below 125 mm (5 in.)
the ramp extension must be used
both to prevent damage to the integral ramp,
and to reduce the effort required to load the
wheel chair.
To avoid the risk of the passenger coming into
contact with the door aperture etc., never rush
the loading process or allow a powered wheel
chair to be driven into the vehicle unsupervised.
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