Amputee told by van driver he shouldn’t park in disabled bay

An amputee has shared the awkward exchange he had with a van driver who told him he shouldn’t have been parking in a disabled bay.

A man whose leg was amputated after a horror accident has shared concerning footage showing a van driver telling him he isn’t entitled to use a disabled parking space.

Ben Perry was providing assistance to people inside a crashed vehicle on the side of a highway in 2018 when he was struck by another car and left with catastrophic injuries.

This van driver told Ben Perry he couldn’t park in a disabled bay. Picture: Twitter/benperry_2001

The British man has since been fitted with a prosthetic leg, and after some frustrating back and forth with his local council, was given a blue badge – the equivalent of an Australian Disability Parking (ADP) permit.

A van driver ignorant to his disability, however, was yesterday captured accusing Mr Perry of wrongly using a disabled parking bay.

The man pulled up to Mr Perry’s car just after 11am and beeped the horn to get his attention.

Mr Perry was captured on his car’s dashcam approaching the van to speak with the driver.

“Oi, that’s a disabled space, you can’t park there,” the driver said.

Mr Perry pointed out the blue badge on his windscreen. Picture: Twitter/benperry_2001

Mr Perry responded saying, “Why not? I’m disabled”.

The driver then asked where his blue badge was, with Mr Perry pointing to its location on his windscreen.

The confused driver was then reminded why one should never speculate about whether someone has a disability.

Mr Perry lifted his trousers to display the prosthetic leg he was wearing underneath, telling the driver: “Look, I’ve got one leg!”

He said the driver responded by saying, “Oh, okay then” before driving away.

Mr Perry lifted his trouser leg to show the driver his prosthetic. Picture: Twitter/benperry_2001

The awkward exchange was shared to Twitter by Mr Perry on Wednesday and attracted a large response from his followers.

“Amazed you walked away laughing from that – and guess who some of the biggest culprits for abusing disabled spaces are … workmen in vans,” one person responded.

“Seriously though must be quite a challenge remaining polite sometimes,” another said.

Someone else echoed the sentiment that “not every disability is visible”.