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Feb 10, 2006 10:30 am US/Central
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I-TEAM Investigates Airport Cart Accidents
by David Schechter
(WCCO)
When 100,000 airline passengers mix with a fleet of moving vehicles, you're going to have accidents. Occasionally those accidents are serious, the I-TEAM found.
The Dombroski family called the I-TEAM after an airport cart ran over their son and dragged him several feet.
"I didn't have enough time to get to him," father John Dombroski said.
"It hit him face on," mother Stacy Dombroski said. "He was facing the cart. It came right at him."
David Dombroski, 2, went between the tires. The cart dragged him over the carpet.
The next day, the boy had a second-degree carpet burn on his back.
"David got lucky," John Dombroski said.
The boy is doing fine. But some travelers saw this coming.
The I-TEAM recently asked several travelers at the Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport what they think when they see an airport car approaching.
"'Get out of the way,'" one traveler said.
"I just hope they don't hit me," another said.
"That they're going too fast, and I'm afraid for my children," said one woman, a mother of three.
After hearing about David Dombroski, the I-TEAM thought that maybe this wasn't the first accident at the airport.
The I-TEAM asked to see airport accident records and surveillance video. As it turns out, in the last four years, there have been more than 60 accidents.
Most injuries were minor, such as a child's bruised knee. A few were more serious: a 1-year-old with a bruise to the left eye; a 2-year-old with his ankle broken.
One man fell off a cart and complained he hurt the back of his head.
Then there's the cart that hit a 79-year-old former presidential candidate. Seated and hit from behind, he was "knocked out of his chair" and then "chairs fell onto him."
That passenger was George McGovern.
Twenty-four hours after David Dombroski's was hit, there was another accident, and it was worse.
Steve Bomar was a few feet away when his wife and mother were knocked to the ground.
"Holy mackerel," Bomar said as he watched surveillance video of the accident for the first time. "It looks horrendous."
It was the same driver who broke the boy's ankle, as the I-TEAM mentioned earlier. He got a ticket and his cart license was revoked.
The victims were taken to the hospital, but when they came back to fly home to Omaha, it seems the ordeal wasn't quite over.
"One came around the corner with passengers and came very close to striking my mom again," Bomar said.
Sgt. Dave Karsnia handles cart enforcement for the Metropolitan Airport Police.
"At what point do you say, 'Gosh, we might a problem here?'" the I-TEAM asked.
"We know, like I said, we want to get that number down to zero," Karsnia replied.
With 37 million passengers coming through every year, Karsnia says 62 accidents in four years is a low number.
A company called G2 Secure operates all of Northwest's carts. G2 and Northwest both declined to be interviewed on camera, but say the carts provide a valuable service to travelers who need assistance.
The cart company also says drivers are closely monitored and trained.
The I-TEAM asked Karsnia, "Do you think this company is doing a good job? Are they safe?"
"We look at how they're driving as they're going through the terminal," Karsnia said. "They are driving slow. They are watching out."
While none of the 60-plus accidents was life-threatening, the Bomars and Dombroskis both say they wouldn't want the same thing to happen to anyone else.
"The next time, that little 2-year-old might not be as lucky as David," John Dombroski said.
The carts make a beeping sound when they go back, but not when they go forward.
The airport says a constant forward beep would sort of turn into white noise, and people would stop hearing it. The airport says that would be a nuisance.
In many of the accidents the I-TEAM mentioned, the drivers were ticketed by airport police. Occasionally the cart company suspends them as well..
The I-TEAM talked to George McGovern about his accident, which happened a few years ago. He said getting hit by a cart was "kind of a jolt." He scraped up his knees, but still made his plane.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)