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?

Fryone If scooter drivers were on the whole sensible and safe, this thread wouldn't have happened, and it's not just one incident, there are more.

You have no idea if most scooter drivers are safe or not. How unfair. I would say that most cyclists are safe road users but everyone here would have a story to dispute that. It wouldn't say anything about the thousands of safe cyclists that we don't hear about. Stop making things up.

Blankety was saying exactly what most others have been saying!

To summarise, I agree that there needs to be regulations, a test and mandatory insurance.

Blankety blank, you do have the right to use your scooter. I also have the right to walk on a footpath without my leg being broken in two places and with no avenue for the costs of those injuries being compensated for.

We all have to muck along together in this world. Everyone needs to act with courtesy towards each other, and to not cause injury to others.

Nobody questions cyclists' right to get from A to B?!

Excuse me while I LAUGH MY HEAD OFF.

I agree hazeyjane

It astounds me that you are not allowed ever ever to say anything negative about anyone person from a minority group on here. The inference is that people in minority groups are excuses from certain things that they are actually perfectly capable of - in this case driving a scooter safely.

It is acutally inversely disablist to defend someones poor driving of a mobility scooter becuse they are disabled. If they qualify to use a scooter then they qualify to use it safely. Is this not equal opportunities?

Tinkly get a grip. No one has said you should have to stay in the house, so stop taking offence for the sake of it.

There needs to be regulation on mobility scooters as ARE dangerous. You can't compare them to prams or our chairs because they would never do the kind of damage a scooter could do.

Car and motorbike uses a have to pass a test and pay insurance.

I wasn't aware that mumsnet users believe cyclists should be banned. I know they don't like them but I didn't realise they would choose to take everyone's bikes away.

Blankety You agree that insurance should be mandatory which it obviously should.

But there are some people whom no insurer would cover. Or whose premiums would be unaffordable. And those people do not have a right to use a scooter, however isolating that might be. Just like you can't drive a car if your eyesight goes.

At no time am I saying disabled people are being a nuisance.

I just want everyone to be safe. And that means being able to handle a motorised scooter, cycling properly and with respect to others, pushing a pram with respect to others, etc.

Prams and cyclists have been criticised here on MN, and drivers of scooters should also be aware of others around them. Sadly, while many are, there are also a number who aren't. Spend just a little time in my town and you'll see this.

I've seen this as a pedestrian, and when pushing my mum in a wheelchair, and now she's on a scooter it's become more obvious when other people are acting warily around her.

Perhaps we've just got a real hardcore of selfish people in my town. In all of the groups I've mentioned.

I am not disputing some people are crap at driving these things. I am disputing the whole tone of this thread. This whole thing about negating disabled people's experiences. How dare we be offended?

Of course prams are fine. Unless you are a bit slow or wobbly, then they are a bloody nightmare. But let's all moan about the scooters, because they are causing problems for the able bodied people.

Please point out the disablist comments are there isn't any!!

Lessons on how to drive, a test and insurance should be mandatory They are heavy machines and can easily cause a lot more damage then a slow moving, light buggy or a child's scooter.

Honestly! [facepalm]

This sort of ranty thread about a mobility device that disabled people rely on can be the cause of abuse towards disabled people.

Spot on.

Any right thinking person would have to agree with you Andrew, if you're talking about a situation in which a car licence would also be taken away. I would be concerned about insurance companies making premiums impossibly high or imposing their own rules or regulations. That could make it difficult for people who can actually pass a proficiency test to insure themselves. Perhaps there needs to be some regulation around insurance. I watched a documentary recently and it seemed to be one man sitting at his dining room table with a couple of girls in a portacabin. He shouldn't be making the rules up.

There are inconsiderate people in this world....and some are drivers, cyclists, pedestrians, scooterers (?) and those with mobility scooters.

I am at different times a pedestrian, a driver and a cyclist. I have spent a prolonged time on crutches leading up to and post a hip replacement operation. I may need a mobility scooter in the future. I am delighted they exist as clearly they are hugely beneficial for many.

The criticism levelled at poor mobility drivers ( who happen to be disabled) could equally be directed at others.

I do not see this thread as being disable-ist. no one is being rude about disabled people in the way that bad cyclists (rightly) get hammered here.

This is about being respectful to others.

I don't understand the posters who are up in arms about what the OP is posting. No-one is saying that mobility scooters should be banned, or that disabled people should be without wheelchairs. What is being said is that there should be laws put in place for these scooters because they're so powerful. So that people driving them have been tested and trained to use them properly. And they you should have to have insurance if you're driving them, at least then if there is an accident there is some compensation for the victim.

Mobilty scooters are not wheelchairs!

juliascurr as long as you're not over the drink/drive limit when you get on your scooter no one has a problem with you using it to go to the pub. If you are over the limit then you really shouldn't be using a motorised vehicle because it's dangerous!

Tinkly no, no one is going to demand regulation for prams because prams can't go at 8mph along the pavement!

There are a lot of people in my area who use mobility scooters and most of them use them as they should be used with due care and attention. There are also unfortunately 2 people I can think of that don't. They drive along the pavement at top speed and several times I've witnessed them almost crash into people. One a toddler whose mum pulled her out of the way in time, another almost crashed head on into a pram! The woman pushing it had no where to move to as the pavement was crowded and ended up pushing the pram into the road. I am very concious of not getting in people's way when out and about and teach my kids the same, especially moving out of the way for people in wheelchairs and on mobility scooters.

I do think cyclists should also be made to do training and take test and have basic insurance before being allowed to get on the road (or pavement as most do around here).

blanketyblank100

Thank you for accusing me of lying and making things up. My mum did see that poor little boy get run down, and I've seen near misses galore.

I know other people who also witnessed other incidents.

And I'm only one person here. Which means many more incidents will be unreported.

Perhaps there needs to be some regulation around insurance

The FSA.

These mobility scooters must be a godsend to some people but I do think that there ought to be some sort of test.
A few weeks ago, a close relative of mine who was looking at something on a market stall, was run into from behind by a scooter which was driven by another elderly lady. The driver did not apply the brakes and my relative was pushed under the stall and her leg was quite badly injured.
The driver offered my relative money for some plasters to put on her badly bleeding leg. The injury was too bad for plasters and she is still having weekly visits from the nurse to dress her wounds.
Perhaps some sort of test or registration is needed. It occurs to me that some of the people driving them may not have previous experience of driving anything.

I had one coming up behind me and brake my leg a couple of years ago. I was a contractor so being unable to work costing me a loss of 10,000. the lady didn't have insurance so I had to sue. while I won the amount I got was a hell of a lot less than what I lost.

There are laws in place for mobility scooters. The ones which go on the pavement can only go up to 4/5mph. The road ones go a bit faster.

Really in increasing the amount of legislation you have to look at how disproportionate it may be to the actual harm caused, and the fact that these vehicles are a godsend to the people who have them, so the actual benefit to society as well.

Also any legislation needs to be enforced. If there is a particular problem in your area the local PCSO having a quiet word or just being around will usually sort it out.

Mobility scooters are not wheelchairs!
Mine is my wheelchair. Why would you say it isn't? I prefer having a wheelchair with a tiller control, ie a mobility scooter as I feel prone in a standard electric chair. I'm sure I'm not unique in this.

Its not about 'one person' though is it - it is using the example of one careless mobility scooter driver in the OP, to make a load of assumptions and extrapolations about mobility scooter drviers in general. Then a load of wading in with'anecdotes' about other mobitly scooter driver - anecdotes are not data.

No one would tolerate a thread which said a 'person of a certain ethnicity/sexuality/gender' pulled out in fornt of me this morning therefore no one of said ethnicity/sexuality/gender should be allowed on the roads. And quite rightly so. Why is it Ok to single out a group of road users as dangerous, based on the actions of one person?

It is not inverse disabilism, to ask people not to expand one example of a disabled driver with poor road skills into a general panning of all scooter users.

This thread is very offensive in many ways - not just because of its disabilist tone, but because disabilism is so ingrained in certain parts of society that people are unaware of it, or because for some reason they think it's OK.

I suppose all of us who have had near misses or actually witnessed incidents involving mobility scooters have just made it up so we can be disabalist for the sake of it?

Just because you are disabled doesn't mean you can endanger and/or have no consideration for others. Nor does it mean you should be exempt for taking responsibility for your actions. A short course and test should be mandatory in order to use something that could cause a lot of damage if not used correctly.

No one has said anything remotely disabalist on here by the way. I can see a lot of chips on shoulders though...

Fryone

I didn't suggest you were making that up. I was referring to your comment that mobility scooterers (!) on the whole weren't sensible or thread, and this thread was proof of it! I was pointing out that you had no idea how most people were using their scooters. I wasn't denying that you knew of exceptions. And I agree with you about regulation. Life with a disability is very, very difficult, you can't know how difficult until you've experienced it. It's also very public and people aren't always patient or considerate when they're inconvenienced, even by a wheelchair. Most disabled individuals that I've come across are very careful and responsible. It's wearying and depressing to come across the bigoted view that you have knowledge about what's happening 'the whole' time simply because there are anecdotes. Nobody's denying there's a problem but that doesn't give you the right to make a casual assumption that will make many people feel criticised and judged.

You are the voice of reason, kurri, thank you.