STS Tire Stores Unfriendly to those Most Reliant on Wheels – The Paraplegic

STS Tire and Auto Centers puts people on new wheels all over the northeast with about 60 locations in New Jersey, 21 in Pennsylvania and 26 in New York. However, according to paraplegic Jose Clemente, STS is unfriendly to the wheels he is most reliant on-those on his wheelchair. In his federal court lawsuit, Clemente claims that some STS locations fail to follow the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) by failing to accommodate disabled customers with appropriate parking and restroom accessibility.

In February 2011, Clemente was having his car serviced at an STS location in Cherry Hill, NJ. While he waited for the repairs to be completed, he noticed violations with the store’s parking and restroom accessibility. On his own, he discovered ADA violations at 8 other STS Tire locations, including too few parking spaces for the disabled, inaccessible sales counters, and insufficient layout and positioning of restroom fixtures. Clemente’s suit also claims violations of the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD) for failure to offer “full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges, or services offered” to wheelchair bound patrons.

If Clemente wins his case, he may get money damages and cause STS great embarrassment – by proving that it discriminated against the very people it claims to be serving -those truly in need of wheels!