"Driving" electric wheelchair/buggy whilst staring at their phone

[messycollage]

-NC but am a regular to gain some objectivity-

Saturday, walking towards and through the underpass with my son in his pram. Noticwe when walking towards the underpass, a man on an electric mobility type scooter. He is steering with his left hand on the handle bars and in his right hand, he had his mobile phone. He was looking straight down at the phone and scrolling through. I was some distance behind to begin with. As I neared, I started to talk to my son, to make the man aware someone was approaching from behind. He continued to stare at his Facebook page, scrolling around. I was close enough I could see it was Facebook. The underpass is a cross shape. He was to my left near to the wall. I sped up my pace "overtook" him and went down the passage to the left. I heard him say "Stupid woman" Conversation below ensued...

Me: "I beg your pardon?"
Man: "You. Stupid woman. This could have hurt you"
Me: "Well if you hadn't been on your phone, you would have seen me approaching and passing you"
Man: "I wasn't on my phone"
Me: "You were on it for the whole of the path upto the underpass and through to the centre! Not once did you look up!" (This would take maybe 90 seconds to walk and he was face down looking at his phone the whole time"
Man: "You could have been seriously hurt if I hadn't seen you"

At this point I just left it and carried on on my way. According to my Dad who continued in the direction the man had gone (The underpass brings you out on each side of the road) he then was grumbling under his breath.

I did think his last comment was ironic because he hadn't seen me as he had had his head buried in his facebook screen.

So, WIBU here or was he?

[messycollage]

Just to add, I then saw him about 20 minutes later when I was in my car - going along the pavement, head down into his phone again.

[bungmean]

He was being a knob. YWNBU.

[BeyondBeyondBeyondBeyondBeyond]

Hmm, dunno. I use my phone while in my wheelchair, so...

[BeyondBeyondBeyondBeyondBeyond]

Of course he was still being a knob to have a go at you!

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

He was being a knob to operate a powered vehicle without paying proper attention to his surroundings. If he had hit someone, he could have hurt them.

He was jeopardising both himself and other people around, because he couldn't keep his nose out of his phone - because he thought FB was more important than not driving into someone else/not causing an accident.

[messycollage]

I was really quite cross. If he had been in a car it would have been an offence (Not sure if it's also applicable to those kinds of machines). If he had had cursory glances then fair enough but this was full on head down buried in his phone. Silly man.

It would apply, as MrsDeVere says, to someone doing any form of moving with their heads buried. The number of people I saw gawking at their mobiles not looking where they are going infuriates me. If I need to be in eye contact with my phone, I move to the side, out of people's way and am stationary.

Took me all my might not to shout something out of the windows as I passed him later on.

[Amelie10]

Yanbu, bloody irresponsible he could have hurt someone.

[UnderseaPineapple]

Liar.

[deepbreath]

YANBU. Dd is 13 and has a powerchair. It weighs 150kg without her in it, and the speed is limited because she's under 14. A heavy adult moving faster could cause serious injury. She has been out playing Pokémon Go, but stops somewhere safe to check the phone.

[Longlost10]

I've just seen the same thing in a busy shopping centre, woman in powered buggy concentrating entirely on her phone and oblivious to shoppers leaping out of her way on all sides....

[MeAndMy3LovelyBoys]

Undersea Who's a liar?