To think that mobility scooters are bloody dangerous and there should be more regulation of their use?

[JellyDiamond]

I've just nearly run over a man on a disability scooter. I was driving along at 30mph, when he pulled off the kerb right in front of me. He didn't look anyway but when he realised I was coming towards him he didn't seem to know how to stop it and carried on. Had I been going any faster I would have hit him, had another car been behind me they'd have crashed into me...

I appreciate elderly and disabled people need to get about, but many of them don't seem to know how to use these scooters. There's an old chap near me who uses and one and drives along in the middle of the road, holding up traffic and refusing to pull over to let anyone pass. I've nearly been run over myself by them on pavements, in shops, in supermarkets and I've heard of people who have actually been bit and injured by them.

Surely there should be some kind of course and test for users before allowing them lose on the public? Maybe even an assessment to see who actually needs them rather than just giving them out willy billy to any OAP over the age of 70 wants one?

My last post was in reply to honey btw

Some posters seem to have really taken this thread personally and all anybody is saying as far as i can see is that scooters can be dangerous in the wrong hands and everybody has a right to expect to go about their business in relative safety, disabled or not with some consideration from others.

well said lifesalemon!

Mamuka, and not everyone on "your" side of the argument has been measured in their responses either. Not everyone has generalized with “them”. I have went to great pains to stress that just because one poster found mobility scooters “easier to drive than a dodgem” and another poster's old aunt mastered them in an hour, that she/they should remember that some people have extreme difficulty operating them. I was laughed at for that. I don’t focus on the silly people who just want to stir up an argument, like that lady did earlier saying to the man who posted about his wife and her mobility scooter, that I would be along soon to call him a liar. She is stupid. She was stirring shite. She was hoping to get one more person on side to in a little posse against me. She is best ignored. Which I did while i carried on talking with the people who seemed more likely to want an adult discussion. Maybe you too should ignore the people who we both know, are obviously just out to stir shite for the "other" side.

Night all!

Totally agree happy
Well said!

life I wasn't generalising I was being general as I didn't want to scroll through and find individual names. I didn't say ALL - no where in my post did I say all.

happy
I'm not on any side of the argument. No where in this thread have I disagreed with safe use of scooters.
However I do feel there has been (from some posters) an attitude towards scooter users that wouldn't be present if we were discussing wheel chair users.

I think I'm done with this thread now, as people are determined to think people are on sides when that's not the issue at all. I thought we were having a general debate of this issue.

Peace to all

I am really going...

but just wanted to add that the reason I take comments like I mentioned before personally, is that they are. They are not some one calling me silly, they are someone judging me for my disability.

I am 32 year scooter user. I don't want to be different - it is not my 'choice' to use one and to think anyone (even one person) thinks I would choose it rather than walk or that I'm being thought of (by some people) as a nuisance every time I leave my house is upsetting.

However I do feel there has been (from some posters) an attitude towards scooter users that wouldn't be present if we were discussing wheel chair users.

if you feel that way, why don't you direct your anger and frustration to those actually saying those things instead of to those us saying the complete opposite?

honey
I'm sorry if you are made to feel that way.
Given the choice to use your legs or a scooter then obviously you would choose your legs. I wouldn't choose for my daughter to be a wheelchair user if I could choose for her to use her legs. That is not our choice to make and that is not the choice i was referring to. The choice in question was wether you would still choose to use your scooter if you knew that you were a danger to others and yourself by using it and if that was the case I would judge you. Not for your disability but for your irresponsible attitude and lack of consideration for the safety of others.

mumukahoney I can see why you have taken this thread personally (I think a lot of us have taken this thread personally, including me), but if you are a responsible scooter-driver, one who isn't a danger to others, then this thread really hasn't been about you.

I think the reason this thread has aroused a lot of passion, is because it's shit enough being less able in the UK as it is, with more than enough ignorance and sheer spite around to wear down the most positive person. It can be very easy to react badly to any comment on something which can be a lifeline to a lot of people.

As I said upthread, 500+ posts about mobility scooters ? Not really. 500+ posts revealing how vulnerable and threatened those with serious medical conditions are feeling right now.

I'm sure everyone on this thread is lovely in RL. I'm sure all MNers are lovely in real life. As are their DPs, DCs pets and soft furnishings. However the able people who cheerily plonk their cars in blue badge spaces have to come from somewhere. The foursome I saw recently in a Morrisons cafe refusing to move from the table reserved for wheelchairs users because they were "sick of your type", thus reducing a poor lady to tears, have to come from somewhere.
The thugs who victimised a blind girl - until she caught them on a bodycam. They have to come from somewhere. And in general, the people who make the less able feel a nuisance and a burden they have to come from somewhere. And the overall tone of this thread has been quite negative. Very little in the way of helpful suggestions, and an awful lot in the way of "thou shalt not".

mumukahoney I can see why you have taken this thread personally (I think a lot of us have taken this thread personally, including me), but if you are a responsible scooter-driver, one who isn't a danger to others, then this thread really hasn't been about you.

That's exactly what some posters in this thread don't seem to understand. It is about mumukahoney and it is about Tinky and it is about me and it is about every other person who has to use a mobility scooter. By all means deal with people who show they are a danger to others but don't do that by imposing restrictions and making life harder for us all.

It's easy to sit there and believe we're getting our knickers in a twist over nothing, after all if we're capable of passing a test we've got nothing to worry about, right? But people on this thread are talking about regular assessments of people's capabilities without really thinking about how terrifying that would be for someone completely dependent on their scooter. We already have so much to overcome and we're already carrying way more of our fair share, please don't burden us more.

Except, LurkingHusband, there have been people with disabilities on this thread, and people whose families have disabilities and frailties, who have expressed their (reasonable, founded) fear of injury from scooters, and their experience of actual injury and close calls, and they've been ignored.

You are casting this discussion as an ablebodied -v- disabled one, and it isn't that at all. You are erasing the experiences of other people with disabilities with your post, and it's a pretty dishonest trick.

^^

What LurkingHusaband said.

LurkingHusband, I think you're making this more

able-bodied versus disabled

than what it actually is, which is

able-bodied and disabled people who support safe use of mobility devices

Liverpoollou, it's also about my husband who won't reach 50 without a mobility scooter. He, and me, like other disabled people on this thread (or their nearest and dearest) fully support mobility vehicles. We just want safeguards to ensure that the deaths and serious injuries which have already happened, aren't repeated.

What you want to do is lock the stable door after the horse has bolted.

You said, and I quote "By all means deal with people who show they are a danger to others but don't do that by imposing restrictions and making life harder for us all".

But what if we only find out Mr Smith from number 7 is a danger AFTER he broke the woman upthread's legs?

What if we only find out that Mrs Brown from number 35 is a danger AFTER she killed the mother of the poster upthread?

What if we find out my husband is a danger in his mobility scooter AFTER he kills the toddler strolling on the pavement?

That's two deaths and one badly broken leg that would be avoided using my idea as opposed to yours. Is that a bad thing?

The only way to do that is some kind of test. Basic by all means. Easy to pass by all means. Free assistance and coaching to help people pass. The mock practice/test circuit shown on the BBC documentary (it's in yorkshire somewhere) was very basic, in my personal opinion very easy, and many mastered it in minutes. A good few though did need repeated lessons to master the mock circuit. The young woman with MS in the documentary gave up and abandoned her mobility scooter as she decided for herself she just couldn't safely control it.

The law as it now stands says my elderly, extremely visually impaired neighbour, who walks into wheely bins (and dogs and small children and fences and gates and kids toys left on the street) all the time because he simply can't see them until he is upon them, can legally use his 260lb mobility scooter on pavements, pedestrian areas and very busy roads. He is a risk to himself and to others on the roads and pavements. But he is legal.

Can I ask anyone on this thread, who is against basic safety tests for mobility scooters

would you be prepared to find and watch the BBC documentary, and tell us honestly, the young lady who gave up on using her mobility scooter because she decided herself she couldn't control it and was a danger:

would any of you, honestly, be prepared to walk around the an area of the town centre, blind folded, have your kids and frail mum and disabled aunt with you, also blind folded, while someone with similar driving abilities drives their mobility scooter around the small area you are all circulating in?

I wouldn't. I definitely wouldn't.

With full eye-sight and two perfectly functioning legs and reflexes, I would take that dare on. I am nimble enough to avoid a rogue mobility scooter providing I see it. But no way would I dare to walk around blindfolded when my old neighbour is out on his.

I have a video we made for him. (we being his own adult children and the neighbours). We set off a bit of our street for about an hour. We put a few obstacles on the road and pavement (teddybears, wheely bins, cardboard boxes, a wooden pallet, a kids bike). We filmed him travel about 200metres in all directions of his home. He hit SO many things. When we played that video back to him in his own home, then and only then did he realise how much of a danger he was. He had no idea he had hit half the things. He mowed right over my winnie-the-pooh bear which is a meter tall and was leaning against my garden gate. He knocked it over from standing to flat, ran over it, dragged it along the road for a bit, and didn't even know it had been there till he saw it played back on the video. He now doesn't go out in his mobility scooter unless one of his family or neighbours or one old friend accompanies him. But the point is. He CAN go out on it if he chooses. And he did all the time before he saw the video of himself.

And just to add: the lady in the BBC documentary, I wish I could help her master her mobility scooter. I would contact her if I lived closer to her. I think she can do it. I just think she needs a lot of help to become safe. My old neighbour however, no amount of help will make his eyesight better. He shouldn't be allowed to legally drive it in public. I even worry about his (and others) safety with his 20-20 vision chaperones at his side. Again though, it's perfectly legal for him to drive it. And vision is just ONE of his problems. His coordination is very poor. His reflexes are very poor. And his concentration too is poor. Oh, and he is totally deaf in one ear, and has partial hearing in the other ear.

They are the same as cars, fantastic if used safely. Same as anything really.

I really don't want to get drawn into this because I don't believe it's an open discussion with people listening and taking on board what others have to say. I feel it's more about being right and trampling others down in the determination to 'win'.

That applies to both sides, Lou, but I think there are enough here wanting to hear what others think.

and a lot of the people I see using them are grotesquely obese and I can't help but think they need to do more exercise.....

How?

If you have the kind of disability that means you need to use a mobility scooter what exercise can you do?

Oh and try cooking a healthy balanced meal if you cannot stand up in your kitchen.

Try not putting weight on if you are on steroids. Olympic standard athletes can't do that so I'd love to see you try.

Do you know what I saw today?

A bloody great big white vehicle weighing about 5 tonnes that went through a red light and then on to the wrong side of the road.

Not one motorist beeped heir horn, lots even got out of the way to make sure it could get through ON THE WRONG SIDE!!!

bloody NHS, just because the thing had blue flashing light. And the driver looked a bit overweight, maybe she should run instead of driving.

It does indeed Sunna. I've read the whole thread and have wanted to comment before but can't quite get my ordered (I have a cognitive disability). The tone of a lot of this thread is so aggressive that I daren't try to give my thoughts because I know if I don't express them well I'll be jumped on and torn apart without mercy. It's not exactly conducive to a good discussion.

I understand why people need them. I have a disabled teenager who uses a scooter to get around (not a mobility one, a kiddy one) and I've seen him really struggle when he hasn't had it with him. I know that he's in pain, and as a parent it kills me to see him like this. If, for any reason, he was a danger to other people or to himself when he used his scooter, I'd take it away. Compassion and consideration is a 2 way thing, everyone looking out for each other. If he was a danger to other people, if he didn't slow down and have awareness of those around him, there's no way I'd let him use it. My child's right to be without pain doesn't trump someone else's right to be safe, just as someone else's right to get around doesn't trump someone else's right to be safe as well.

There's a lot of passionate people on here and being a parent to a disabled child I know how hard life is and how it's a constant battle, but being disabled doesn't give someone the right to cause harm to someone else, whether accidentally or otherwise. Some of the accidents posted on here could very well be avoidable, some could just be accidents, but everyone using one of these needs training because it minimalises risks. There may be a little training in the shop, but there's no training if you buy one second hand, and something does need to be done.

Well said, LadySybil.

Thank you.

Public Service Announcement: if you comment that you are too scared to comment because all the posters here are horrid and will tear you apart,

a) you are actually commenting, right there,

and b) that's just a tediously passive-aggressive way of attacking other posters.

FOR THE LAST TIME (maybe): this isn't a disabled -v- able-bodied argument, and anyone who claims it is has clearly not read the thread. Or they have read the thread and are ignoring the 50% of the people with disabilities on it who don't agree with their own viewpoint.