Drivers who use handicap parking spots sometimes run into tough situations. So, when a viewer contacted KHOU 11 News about a local hotel using a handicap spot for something else, we decided to get some answers.
Getting around isn't easy for Mary Beth Wallace.
"I have a really bad back and some knees," she said.
When she showed up at the Royal Sonesta for an event at the hotel, "I pulled out my placard and showed it to him and he said 'OK I'll go park it over there, but you still have to pay.'"
Wallace paid $15 dollars to have her car valeted into the handicap spot, but then she noticed something else.
"When we looked there were different cars parked and no handicap stickers on them, any of them in the handicap," said Wallace.
We took her concerns to hotel management, who told us it all boils down to this.
"She wanted to park there without paying for valet, but all of our parking here costs money whether it's valet or self-parking," said Peter Ells, General Manager at Royal Sonesta.
As for the other cars she saw parked in handicap spots...
"The valets have control of all those cars, all of the time but we need to keep that space flowing especially on busy arrival nights when we have 400 or 500 people coming to an event," said Ells.
These aren't the only handicap spots on the property. The hotel's parking garage goes above the number of required spaces by the A.D.A.
However, for Wallace it seemed too far to walk and not worth the wait.
"It's not just for me, it's for the people that suffer more than I do, I do suffer, but it's not right," she said.
We checked with several legal experts and state agencies.
Texas law allows people with handicap placards to be exempt from local and state government parking meters, but there is no exemption for private property.