Wheelchair

Many Logan Square residents knew Brian Abel as the man who pushed his wheelchair backward up Market Street between 23rd and 30th. But friends and relatives remember him as the man with the friendly smile who always stopped to say hello. "Everybody knew him because they would see him wheeling backwards in that wheelchair," said his mother Betty, 81. "He'd say it was easier for him that way. He was so determined. If he wanted to go out, he was going to go. " One month ago, Abel, 51, was on his way from his home at the Riverside Presbyterian Apartments on 23rd Street near Race to a jogging path along the Schuylkill.

Philadelphia Police Sunday were investigating a fatal accident in which a freight train killed a man whose wheelchair was apparently stuck on the tracks at 23th and Race Streets in the Logan Square neighborhood. The accident occurred just after 1 a.m. Sunday when the man's wheelchair got stuck as he tried to cross the tracks, police said. The conductor of an oncoming CSX train was unable to stop after he saw the man waving, according to police. The man, who was in his 50s, was pronounced dead at the scene.

"I'm hoping that someday, if you look up irony on Google, my name comes up," psychotherapist Dan Gottlieb was saying this week. See, a not-so-funny thing happened to the WHYY-FM Voices in the Family host on the way to his first comedy class at a club nearly two weeks ago. Gottlieb, who has used a wheelchair since his neck was broken in a 1979 auto accident and who draws on his experiences in his practice, said he was wheeling into...

The Philadelphia Parking Authority said yesterday that it would grant a wheelchair-accessible parking space for a severely disabled 12-year-old South Philadelphia girl, reversing an April decision to deny the spot because she hadn't received a neighbor's permission. The Daily News reported Friday that Salina Sok's mother had filed a federal lawsuit against the PPA on her daughter's behalf, claiming that the requirement to get the consent of one of their next-door neighbors violated her rights.

THE PROBLEM: Shawn Tucker risks ending up flat on her back every day on her way to work. Tucker is disabled, and her trip to the bus stop isn't easy to navigate. The sidewalk on one side of her street has disintegrated, and debris can get under the wheels of her wheelchair and trip her up. And the curb cut at 15th and Cecil B. Moore Avenue is so steep it can cause her to flip out of her chair. She's not alone. Hope Crittendon of Wissinoming complains that "the pavements are so messed up" in her neighborhood that it's hard to get around in her wheelchair.

ADAM TALIAFERRO did not immediately see or hear what happened Saturday at the New Meadowlands Stadium. The former Penn State cornerback was busy at the time, preparing for the 10th anniversary gala at the Hyatt to celebrate the good work done by the Adam Taliaferro Foundation, which has raised more than $600,000 to benefit Magee Rehabilitation Hospital and provide financial assistance to athletes seriously injured in sanctioned contests. "We had a very good turnout and I was pretty happy," said Taliaferro, who suffered what could have been a paralyzing spinal-cord injury in a Sept.

For the second time since being partially paralyzed by a 2003 boating accident, State Sen. Christine M. Tartaglione on Tuesday walked in the Senate chamber. At the opening of the Senate session, Tartaglione (D., Phila.) read a statement from her wheelchair before getting up to use a walker, with the help of two aides, and making a slow half-circle around the chamber to her chair. There were cheers, tears, and high-fives from her colleagues and friends, a kiss from Minority Leader Robert J. Mellow (D., Lackawanna)

CENTRAL HIGH tennis player DreShaun Jarmon is aiming for the stars. And beating them, too. Someday, the 15-year-old sophomore from South Philly hopes to become a pediatrician. But on Saturday, he competed against some of the tennis world's most noteworthy players. Jarmon defeated Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Kim Clijsters and Esther Vergeer - the 2009 wheelchair singles champion at the U.S. Open, French Open and Australian Open - in a target-hitting contest on center court at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. Jarmon, who will play No. 1 singles at Central this season, said he wasn't nervous even though there were some 25,000 screaming fans present.

Among their complaints, some Francisville residents say that the wheelchair-accessible lifts at the front of their homes create a mess that's hard to clean. Residents say that the lifts at the 18 wheelchair-accessible units break an average of once or twice a year, but that the company that makes them is quick to fix them. The Philadelphia Housing Authority can install either a lift or a ramp, depending on the property location, space and design, said spokesman Kirk Dorn. "Handicap accessibility is needed, but they're not doing it in a good manner," said Seth Trance, 30, who is on Francisville's zoning board.

The chapters of David McFadden's life are filled with stories of bold chances, unimaginable misfortune, and now, new beginnings. When he was just 15, the 57-year-old Willingboro resident lied about his age so he could fight in Vietnam. A few years later, the decorated combat veteran lost his right eye in a freak accident on a North Philadelphia sidewalk. In 1976, after being shot in the leg by a man who was robbing his home, he endured months of painful physical therapy in order to walk again.