SCHREIBER – The McCausland Hospital’s Handi-Transit service is temporarily suspending its service after its Handi-Transit van was involved in a motor vehicle accident on Feb. 9.
Nathan Dias, Schreiber's chief administrative officer, said no passengers were inside the vehicle at the time of the collision and the driver was not injured.
Dias said the town is currently waiting for an insurance adjuster to evaluate the vehicle, but reported damage to the van is extensive.
“From what we can tell from the pictures of the collision, it does look like it would likely be totalled. But of course, we would need to determine the threshold to fix the damage and that will give us our answer,” he said.
Being the only service vehicle to operate in the wide area between Schreiber to Marathon, obtaining a new wheelchair-accessible vehicle is a matter of logistics.
Dias said Schreiber and Terrace Bay are working on procuring an alternative vehicle to resume operations, but there could be changes to the level of service.
“The important part for the Handi-Transit is we need to find some sort of alternate service delivery that allows for a wheelchair-accessible vehicle. The difficulty is sourcing that vehicle nearby, especially where we are,” said Dias
Dias said they have some leads on an alternative vehicle, but that will require the approval of the three parties involved with the operation of the service: the municipalities of Schreiber and Terrace Bay, which share operating costs, and the McCausland Hospital, which operates it.
“Right now, we are looking at the cost benefits and logistics of different ways to do that,” Dias said.
One option is to limit the availability of a wheelchair-accessible vehicle to certain days of the week and provide a full-size SUV-style vehicle to carry out the service for the rest of the week.
“From the operational data, the hospital is stating, based on existing ridership, you wouldn’t need everyday service for a vehicle that is wheelchair-accessible. At this point, we could get by with maybe two days of the week, but we are looking at all available options in order to make this happen,” said Dias.
The municipalities had already been working on replacing the Handi-Transit van with a newer model before the collision, Dias noted.
"That was always planned. We do replace the Handi-Transit vehicle every five years or so. That would be a custom-built vehicle, however, and the lead time could be quite substantial for that. So, from what we understand now, we may be waiting approximately a year to get a brand new vehicle.”