A mobility scooter crashed into me

[Invalidusername88]

Sitting in a cafe nearly finished eating and this mobility scooter tries to get through the gap between my table and the wall. The frame of the scooter hit my table, she carried on going, the table spun round and sandwiched me against the wall, the table digging into my stomach with her still going. I was genuinely worried it wasn't going to stop but eventually it did, a few people including security came running. I was ok apart from a swollen arm and bruises. My memory is a bit blurry now but I think she took out the table and chairs behind me too.

Not sure what I'm looking for here apart from other people's opinions - has anything like this ever happened to you? If this had been a small child they would have been seriously injured. Similarly if I was pregnant this wouldn't have been good. Nothing against mobility scooters previously although a lot more wary now 😂

This is a very depressing thread. Unless you have needed a mobility scooter or wheelchair, you cannot understand how difficult they are. I had to push a relative in a wheelchair once.
It was as if we became invisible. I hope many of the people on this thread never have to use a mobility aid themselves. I guarantee they will differently if they do.

No one is against mobility scooters. They are against irresponsible mobility scooters owners.

No one has said that SOME people are irresponsible. Like you have irresponsible car drivers.

What has been highlighted again and again is that it’s just as likely to be an issue with the environment, lack of accessibility etc…. That scooters and wheelchairs are not always easy to manoeuvre in tight places (see tte issue with the environment).
And therefore you can be very good at using your scooter or wheelchair and STILL have some accidents.

3 mph might be a better top speed?

Getting used to having one, its size, speed etc must take a bit of getting used to. Particularly if you are of riper years, never driven etc.

Some will get one way after they could have done with one and so are on a steep learning curve with additional pain etc and at an age when learning new skills is hard.

My Mum has a stairlift. We got it for my late Dad 7 years ago. She had plenty of time to get to use it before her dementia really got established. Can't use a phone, cooker, TV remote etc but is fine on the stairs.

My neighbour - similar age - had a lift installed a few months ago and is too old to learn how to use it properly. She doesn't get how to use it. We get calls that it's broken, stuck, that she is trapped etc.

They are great and release people from their houses, 99% are fine. but some perhaps shouldn't be one one/need more training.

One might help my mum - but I recognise that overall it wouldn't be a good idea.

Had a mobility scooter reverse quickly at full speed nearly knocking over my pushchair with my daughter in. I shouted at the person to break which startled them to break inches away. She didn't even apologise. Blamed it on me. We weren't even walking we were stood stopped in the supermarket.

Well it was my post you quoted and since I'm a disabled mobility scooter user I already have awareness. I'm just not a selfish person and I'm a realist.

Yes, life with a disability is hard. I totally get why you don't want to hold protests etc. I wouldn't have the energy either. My point was, there are official ways to go about things. Those selfish people (I'm not saying you're one of them) who think their frustrations give them greater entitlement over others who are also just trying to go about their daily lives, need to wake up and realise that not true. There's a peace to be found in acceptance. To understand that things aren't necessarily going to be how you want them to be and to make peace in yourself with that.

Eg cafés and restaurants, that some have mentioned. The space costs what it costs to rent. The business is going to provide for the average customer because that's mostly who'll come through the door. Providing for them makes good business sense. Their business plan and projected profits will be based on X numbers of customers served per day. They can see it's a viable business and start it up. If they then had to halve the number of tables so mobility scooters could fit through the walkways (clue is in the name, I feel), they'll serve less people per day, can't make the profits they need and will go bust. So now instead of an eatery that can be used by the majority of the population, there's yet another boarded up shop. How exactly does that help anyone? It certainly doesn't help the mobility scooter user, who still can't eat there...

If these health conditions didn't affect what a person can do, curtail their life and make things bloody hard, they wouldn't be called "disabilities". Personally I think there's too much banging of drums to the tune of "it's not fair" in general, that acceptance of the disability by the disabled person and a getting on with it and making the best of it attitude is the way to go.

If you, as a disabled person, think it’s ok to tell anyone needing mobility devices that they aren’t allowed in cafe because it’s not financially good firvtte business.
That people with disabilities need to toughen up and just accept their limitations.

Then it’s your choice. But yours only. Don’t insist every other disabled person has to agree with it.

Because your discourse is ableist and we don’t have to accept it.

@MariaAshley "acceptance of the disability by the disabled person and a getting on with itandmaking the best of itattitude is the way to go."

If people with disabilities over the last 50 or so years had had that atttitude, many of us would still be stuck in homes, mental institutions or hospitals. If you want to accept your disability and its limitations, and let the world walk over you, then that is abaolutely fine. But do not expect the rest of us to give up on life simply because the world is ordered around "average". "Average" doesn't even work for the able-bodied, never mind be inclusive of people with disabilities. I didn't accept the world as it was before I had disabilities - I have always firmly believed that we are responsible for leaving the world a better place than we found it. I have absolutely no intention of changing that approach, and I will continue to fight for the rights of others - including people with disabilities like me. If you wish to simply give up, or ride on the backs of others who are fighting for an inclusive world, then that is your choice and your right to choose that. But do not lecture others on "finding inner peace" through acceptance and giving up. The day we give up on making this world a better place then we may be alive, but we are dead inside.

I agree with @RedAndWhiteCarnations - your discourse is ableist. People who are not "average" whether due to age, disability, health, pregnancy or any one of the other factors that makes everyday life a little challenging, even if temporary or changeable, is a hell of a lot of people to write off. Or, more to the point, a hell of a lot of money for businesses to write off. Your version of "realism" is surrender. If people with disabilities surrendered the world would not have the works of Stephen Hawking, Andrea Bocelli, Albert Einstein, Frida Kahlo, Helen Keller, Franklin Roosevelt and too mnay others to mention. We may not all be able to make the mark they did, but it would be a disgrace to leave no mark at all. It isn't "entitled" to demand our rights, to demand inclusion, and to demand equality. It is our human right.

Businesses and other organisations are only required to make "reasonable" adjustments for the disabled. Nothing is prescribed. In a small crowded cafe, not allowing disability scooters may be entirely "reasonable" whereas in, say, a larger open cafe like a M&S, it may be deemed "reasonable" to have to provide for mobility scooters because simpler changes can be made to facilitate them.

Businesses and other organisations also have duty of care to staff and other customers, not just disabled, and it may be deemed unsafe for a smaller place to allow disability scooters if they pose a risk to staff or customers.

Ah yes let’s talk about M&S.

Clothes section: very narrow aisle with a dead end (that you can’t see) so ai ended up with in the middle, struggling to go backwards in the middle of two rows of clothes..l
It could have been very easy fur then to give just a couple of centimetres at the end to make it manageable. As it was, a nightmare for people like me in a wheelchair or people with a pushchair etc….

And then the food section that now has self checking only. With screens at the right level fir abled people but not fir people in a wheelchair/scooter. I had to call for the guy to come and click on the screen fir me. I couldn’t put my pin in either. And yet…. In the clothes section they have tills that are lower for that very reason. It wouldn’t have cost them anything to have a till like this and like … £50 to put a sign up?

So yes….. being deemed reasonable doesn’t mean it happens. On the contrary, I suspect many companies are doing as little as they can get away with. See train companies too (worth a whole thread on its own).

The bottom line though is that it’s very easy to say lots is being done. And what about the poor companies etc…. It doesn’t mean that the situation is right. Nor does it mean we have to accept it.

God all you people up in arms! FFS I never said you can't have your own opinion, I made a suggestion about how you might have a more peaceful life. If it's not for you, then fine, feel free to ignore it. All I'm saying is NONE OF YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO RAM PEOPLE OVER OR RAM INTO TABLES ETC WITH YOUR MOBILITY SCOOTERS JUST BECAUSE YOU WANT TO DO SOMETHING/GO SOMEWHERE AND THERES INSUFFICIENT SPACE (OR YOUR ABILITY TO CONTROL IT IS INSUFFICIENT) and yes, I'm shouting, in the hope you might actually take on board the point I've been making all along and stop getting distracted by minor things you disagree with.

Nobody is deliberately RAMMING PEOPLE OVER or RAMMING INTO TABLES. Being in a mobility scooter or wheelchair in a crowded area and unable to manoeuvre is distressing and embarrassing enough without the judgement of those fortunate enough to be able bodied.

I have nothing against people using mobility scooters, as long as they're responsible.

Some of the issues faced are because places just don't think of accessibility, they cram tables/shelves/whatever in and there's no space to move! Card Factory I'm looking at you...

I'm visually impaired and a cane user, so scooters can be tricky as I don't always hear them and I can miss them in my peripheral vision so I've had a lot of close calls where one has been driven out of a doorway quickly and I've not seen until it's nearly too late etc.

But I agree with someone upthread - people are often head down in their phones and that's also problematic for me, the number of glares I've had when someone's tripped on my cane, because they were on their phone. People also suddenly stop and my reactions aren't good so I walk into them... people with disabilities are often seemingly invisible.

I'm well aware I'll become housebound if I ever develop the need for a scooter as my sight isn't good enough.

I think mandatory training, testing and registration of scooters is possibly the way forward, like with cars. Also compulsory insurance. Especially for the bigger scooters.

My Dads Dr told him most of the people on mobility scooters shouldn't be on them

Very likely this doctor is also one of the ones who said absolutely everyone could wear a mask!

NOBODY, BUT NOBODY, HAS EVER SAID THAT ANYONE, IN A MOBILITY SCOOTER OR ANYTHING ELSE, HAS THE RIGHT TO RAM ANYTHING OR ANYONE. And yes I am shouting back at you because you accuse everyone else of selective reading, but it is you that is selective reading. But our rights to be included in society are not "minor things". They are the point. Many of the things that you, as a person with a disability, depend on have been fought for, and continue to be fought for, by others with disabilities, so that you can have your peaceful life. And that is fine - enjoy your life. But the general pile on against people with disabilities here and on other threads from one or two claimed incidents is offensive. Perhaps you haven't read the posts properly, or didn't see those that were removed, claiming that all or most disabled people in mobility scotters are "twats" and worse. Since you say you use a scooter, perhaps you are content to be called a "twat" and worse.

But some of us find it impossible to ignore the steady stream of vile comments on MN about disabilities.

Now I am going to ignore you (really, MN needs an ignore function) because you seem intent upon reading what is not said and then becoming increasingly goady with your responses.

YANBU OP. It sounds awful, as are the other posts from people who've suffered injuries including broken bones, from people on mobility scooters. It's clear that it's not always about people trying to manoeuvre into spaces that aren't big enough, as some of these injuries have happened where there's no lack of space; it's just people driving them too fast or incompetently.

I wonder how many denigrating MS users on this thread use those electric scooters. Because its THOSE things ive seen being left literally anywhere like in the middle of pavements for partially sighted/blind people to walk into or trip over. Its not mobility scooter users doing this. This and some of the comments here show what a hostile environment it is for disabled people.

I agree, electric scooters are causing real problems, and I’ve narrowly missed being hit by one on a pavement. However, this thread is about the small percentage mobility scooters who have caused injury, admittedly usually by accident, but also through irresponsible use of them and/or not taking responsibility for their actions. Ie. Driving to fast,

My son, aged about 5, got almost shunted into the path of an oncoming car because of an elderly lady who couldn’t control hers. It was just luck that he didn’t get run over. She couldn’t control it all and couldn’t even stop it in the middle of a traffic island.

@Riverlee but people are leaving electric scooters lying around in the middle of pavements which mobility scooter users arent doing. And then partially sighted people are falling over them.

People are being injured by these electric scooters too.

our best estimate, after adjusting for changes in reporting by police, is that there were 440 seriously injured and 1,040 slightly injured in collisions involving e-scooters, this compares to 418 and 1,006 respectively in 2021.28 Sept 2023

Housing association tenants who own mobility scooters are told that DEFINATELY cant charge them indoors.

Housing association tenants who own electric scooters are only ADVISED not to charge them indoors

See the difference?

@JenniferBooth I’m not disputing the fact that e-scooters cause problems. An accident locally caused a fatality to one teenager and injury to another. However, that’s a topic for another thread.

@JenniferBooth it's quite possible to be anti irresponsible electric scooters AND anti irresponsible mobility scooter users. The two things aren't mutually exclusive.

If you feel particularly strongly about e-scooters or have suffered an injury because of a user, why not start your own thread? This one is about mobility scooters because that's the user of one caused injury to the OP

People can choose to use e scooters, or not. People who need mobility aids don't have a choice. They are cumbersome, difficult to transport, difficult to manoeuver. But until something better is invented, should all disabled people just sit at home? A little bit of understanding and the occasional helpful hand would go a long way.

@Oakiedoakie No one is disputing what you say.