CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — A TikTok posted by a Cobb County woman is going viral after she arrived at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and the door to her handicap-accessible van was blocked by an illegally parked car.
“I can’t even get out of the parking because my van has been blocked by someone who is illegally parked,” said Yvette Pegues in the TikTok.
It was Friday evening when Pegues flew into Hartsfield-Jackson and went to her car. But she couldn’t get in and drive away. “I have a 6-foot ramp that comes out of my car to exit the vehicle. In this case I needed at least 6 feet,” said Pegues.
Pegues is paralyzed from the waist down. She said she turned to a call box in the parking deck at the airport for help. “I called parking several times. Parking said call the police. Police said call parking, so I was vacillating between the two.”
“I’m out here alone in the dark and cant get home,” Pegues continued in her TikTok.
Pegues also lives with a cognitive delay. After hours of the back and forth, she was mentally and physically exhausted and her phone battery was dying.
Her husband came to pick her up. It wasn’t until the next day that a tow truck removed the car and she was able to drive her van home.
We went to Hartsfield-Jackson — where a spokesman said drivers like the one in Pegues’ case could face fines and citations.
But also said, “This specific passenger has a great deal of experience at the Airport and served as both chair of the Airport’s ADA Committee and as an ADA volunteer. We have reached out to her to determine just what happened and will implement changes in our responses to situations like this.”
Yvette’s frustrations are not just with the airport, but also with drivers like the one who blocked her in.
“Those are one of the few moments where I wish I had legs that worked.”
“It feels more than unfair, it feels intentional, it feels ableist to be perfectly honest,” Pegues added.