Ron Medvescek / Arizona Daily Star

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Disabled people in Sonora are getting a lift from a Tucson company that adapts vehicles so they can be used to transport them from their homes to rehabilitation centers, schools, or doctors' offices.

The 20-year-old Southern Arizona company, ADE Industries of Tucson, also trained the drivers who operate the vehicles in Hermosillo, Guaymas and Ures, Sonora. Ernie Hernandez, president and owner of ADE, refurbished five units as part of a pilot program implemented by the Sonoran government. And if it works well, they plan to extend it to other Sonoran cities, including Puerto Penasco, also known as Rocky Point, Caborca and Ciudad Obregon.

"Everything worked out well," Hernandez said. "They had their lawyer; they came over here; they wanted to be sure everything went very, very professional. We were so happy when they came; we are helping."

ADE normally builds its own buses for disabled people or adapts people's private vehicles. However, to meet Sonora's delivery requirements, the vehicles were bought from other states and then modified in Tucson for $30,000 to $55,000.

The first four units were delivered in November, and a couple of months ago the Sonoran government received the fifth unit.

"I told them that if they need anything, if they have any problems, I would take my employees down to Hermosillo. That way they don't have to bring the buses all the way down here," Hernandez said.

Adolfo Felix Loustaunau, a border health commissioner in Sonora, said the goal is to provide and enhance services to the state's underserved population.

"Using these units has been great," he said. "The largest unit has capacity for six wheelchairs, and it travels to pick up patients to take them to a rehabilitation center."

The larger unit is to be used by DIF, a government program designed to help families in distress. The other four units — with a smaller capacity of four wheelchairs and six additional passengers — are used by the Sonora Education Department to transport disabled students from their homes to out-of-town schools.

"We have always had these programs, but now we are upgrading," Felix Loustaunau said.

For Hernandez, the pilot program means the opportunity to realize a decade-long desire to help the disabled in Mexico.

He first tried to negotiate with the Mexican government during the administration of former President Ernesto Zedillo in the 1990s, but nothing was settled.

"That was actually the last time I had contact with the government," Hernandez said.

That is, until about a year ago, when employees from the Sonoran government contacted ADE, he said, and made a trip to Tucson.

Gerald Salcido, an ADE employee for 18 years and who worked on the units, said it was a good experience because they had to think about specific needs, such as having room for accompanying people traveling with the disabled. Also, they had to build a lift for wheelchairs at the unit's back and an extra entrance.

There were cultural concerns, too. Because many rural residents wear cowboy-style hats, ADE made the buses slightly taller to accommodate them, Salcido said.

Hernandez said he has noticed in recent years that more people from Mexico are traveling to Tucson looking for a place to adapt their vehicles.

He estimated that 5 percent to 7 percent of the 2,000 vehicles he works on each month come from Mexico.

"I think that is because they are getting more educated — the people that are in wheelchairs — they want to get out," he said. "Everywhere there are sick people. It doesn't matter if you are rich, poor, young or adult; they need a wheelchair, and they need help. It is very fulfilling that we give them their independence back."