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?

sensible or safe

Childrenofthedamned - mobility scooters can't go along the pavement at 8mph - they are not allowed to - regulations are in place. Just as there are regulations to stop people speeding in cars - some will still do it, that doesn't mean no one else should be allowed to use a car or a scooter.

KurriKurri you cannot ride a moped without taking a CBT and you are limited to 2 years before you must take a test for gaining your full licence after which time your provisional licence to ride this machine is revoked iirc. You must also pass a theory test before a practical test to lose the L plates.

As for the suggestion from pp's that mobility scooter users wear a helmet; have none of you seen quad bike riders zooming around the roads without one? it is not the law to wear one, so I am very about forcing mobility scooter users to wear one. My personal view is that cyclists should be made to wear them; it should be the law for that.

I opened this expecting it to be about my FIL - do you live in West Wales, OP? If you do then it was probably him and I apologise profusely .

I absolutely loathe mobility scooters in cases like my FIL. He's overweight (25 stone) and now his knees hurt when he walks so he rides the damn thing everywhere instead of losing the weight (because he's an alcoholic and that would involve not drinking a bottle of whisky a night). He's got no consideration for people on pavements or road users and thinks he got some god-given right to go where he wants, when he wants and damn everyone else.

I realise that this is a reflection of his general personality but he wouldn't be so dangerous if he didn't have the scooter. If there was some sort of test or regulation he wouldn't bother with one - he's lazy.

The scooters are acceptable in the right hands. They do need to be regulated and drivers made to have 'training days' every 2 years or so.

Mobility scooters are brilliant things when used properly, and can be really liberating for people who need them.

However, I agree that people who use them have to obey the rules of the road, just like everyone else. Most people around here use theirs fine, but there is one bloke whose navigation of busy pavements consists in bawling GET OUT OF MY WAY GET OUT OF MY WAAAAAY as loudly as possible, while not slowing down at all. If you were slow on your feet, or had a little kid who wasn't paying attention (as little kids are wont to do) or had a hearing disability, you'd be toast. (Also he's really just rude.)

Mine is my wheelchair. Why would you say it isn't?

Actually I apologise for saying they're not wheelchairs. I presumed that someone who would need an electric wheelchair would prefer that to a mobility scooter. I also presume that in order to use an electric wheelchair you first have to be trained to use it? Which is what I think should apply to scooters as well.

kurri - its not just one person though is it? I have a work colleague who had his foot broken and another person locally who is currently in hospital as a result.

I don't think people are actually picking on disabled people per se, but those that drive mobility scooters.

I imagine that many people drive these because they can no longer cope with a car - I know thats the case with my SFIL. If his eyesite and reactions weren't good enough for a car it does rather make you wonder if he was capable of driving the scooter safely.

perhaps what we need are some proper stats.

It's interesting that they should be speed limited on pavements. In that case the lady that is dangerous on my street is just breaking the law (is it a law?) which, as has been pointed out, happens all the time with cars.

The trouble with insurance is that to people who are not working ( some disabled people do) that insurance becomes financially difficult.

It's pointless charging tax on the mobility scooters as mobility component of PIP/DLA you can get it free and as tax is based on emissions then it would be zero anyway.

KurriKurri just because they're not allowed to go along the pavement at 8mph doesn't mean that people won't use them at that speed on the pavement. Cars are registered and insured, so when someone speeds they (usually) get a speeding fine, or similar. If a speeding car knocked someone over the driver is insured to pay out for the victim's costs. If a scooter is speeding and knocks someone over as pointed out by several people on this thread then they're not insured to pay out for the victim's costs.

kurri

Are you saying that mobility scooter users should not be regulated like the rest of other road users that are in control of a vehicle of some sort?

My auntie has been in hospital four four weeks with head injury and a broken leg as she was hit by a man in a mobility scooter!

She is going to be out of work for months now.

I have a friend whose slightly deaf, independent elderly mother was knocked over by a lady on a mobility scooter, who panicked and was unable to control it. So instead of stopping the scooter the lady ran over the mother, fracturing her femur and breaking her ribs. The mother was hospitalised, required surgery and lost all confidence and died a year later.

for four weeks*

God, that's awful, glint. What happened to the lady on the scooter, do you know - was she prosecuted or banned or anything?

My auntie needed some kind of surgery on her leg as well.

He was driving on the pavement and didn't stop and went straight into her.

I don't live in West Wales Teenagers, but it does sound like nationwide problem. The man who pulled out in front of me was elderly, in his late 70's early 80's. His reactions times were probably quite slow anyway, but if I'd have hit him he would have been the one injured, not me. Regulations would protect the users as well, not just pedestrians.

Mobility scooters are used as wheelchairs. I have a manual wheelchair I cannot self propel due to my disability. I can only walk a few yards. However as I can walk from my couch to the door I do not qualify for an electric wheelchair.
I cannot afford to buy an electric wheelchair so I have to make do with a scooter.

Mobility scooters are incredibly expensive. Given what they cost, shouldn't lessons be included in that?

Wouldn't that help? They are fundamentally assistance for people who have difficulty walking/cannot walk, so they should be on pavements, in my opinion. Pavements should also be a lot bloody wider.

But let's all moan about the scooters, because they are causing problems for the able bodied people.

That is not fair, Tinkly. My mil was in her early 70s, frail and recovering from cancer, which is why being knocked over by a large mobility scooter landed her up in hospital for months.

Ds is wobbly, most of the time he is in a sn buggy, but when he does walk he is very unsteady and if he falls is likely to sublux his hips as he has shallow hip sockets. People who are cylcling on the pavement, kids whizzing past on scooters and people using mobility scooters unsafely, all put the fear of god into me.

I've never seen these dangerous mobility scooter users, just normal non threatening ones, I don't see how they're any more dangerous than wheelchair users or pram pushers. I'd prefer to see cars that park on the pavements towed and taken away for destruction so mobility scooter users, wheelchair users and parents with prams aren't forced onto busy roads. I think that disabled people in particular are disadvantaged enough without further discrimination. We need to make society more adaptable to vulnerable peoples needs, not more restrictive.

Scooters are regulated, and limited on the pavement to 4mph, as a quick google would tell anyone. That is a pretty smart walking pace, the speed my very fit DP walks at.

I am very sorry that some people have been hurt by scooters, but quite honestly, I have been knocked over by cyclists, prams, uncontrolled dogs, and twice, in the school playground, by uncontrolled toddlers. I am not calling for more regulation for any of these things.

Try using a scooter, people leap out at you from all directions. Most have little or no consideration, you have to be hyper, and I mean hyper vigilant. I am sure many of the accidents mentioned were six of one, half a dozen of the other. But somehow they are always perceived as the disabled persons fault. If you walk out in front of a car, it is not perceived as the car drivers fault.

And finally, telling disabled people who feel there is disablism on the thread, that they have " a chip on their shoulder" is frankly a bloody disgrace, utterly shameful.

I can't remember exactly Annie, but the police were involved though no prosecution. The lady didn't have any insurance, but I don't think that you need any. My friend was really upset and angry as her Mum was just out shopping and walking along the road when it happened.

I am surprised that people think it is disablist to say that mobility scooter users should have some training to ensure them to be able to use the scooters properly and safely before being allowed to use them unsupervised.

One of my children has a lifelong disability and has been a wheelchair user and I still think that people using motorised scooters need to have training and be able to use them safely. By not being able to use a motorised scooter properly and steer it appropriately etc the mobility scooter user could be putting both himself and other people at risk of being injured. Is it wrong and disablist to want everyone including the scooter user to be safe?
Having witnessed a mobility scooter being driven in the middle of a dual carriageway going in the wrong direction only last week I do think that some people need training for their own safety as much as anybody else's.

The same goes for cyclists Childrenofthedamned. I have nothing against cyclists - I am one - but I've never had to pass a test and I can ride as fast as I like and I have no insurance - I know from personal experience that a cyclist can do a lot of damage to a pedestrian (on rural roads people have to walk on the road). I don't think cyclists should be banned because one knocked down my elderly mother and left her lying in the road in the dark. I think that's an anecdote about one stupid cyclist, not an indictment of all cyclists.

So the point is not whether people in control of any vehicle should have regulations - and in fact they mostly do - obeying those regulations is a separate issue and applies to all categories of road users.

The point is that one group of road users has been singled out as being dangerous per se and anecdotes have been produced to support this. Data and research is needed to support an argument, not stories of one off accidents.
Blaming a group of people for the actions of one person in that group is stereotyping and in this instance disabilist. That is why it is offensive. It is not 'political correctness gone mad' or 'being professionally offended' to require as standard behaviour, that as a society we do not make sweeping negative statements about groups of people based on their mobility, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, size or anything else.

The OP asks if mobility scooters are 'bloody dangerous' - I don't think they are. I think people who drive vehicles badly can be bloody dangerous and they are found in all categories of vehicles and road users.

I rarely go out without seeing an example of some sort of bad driving somewhere - it is very common - people are human, they sometimes make mistakes, and sometimes they behave stupidly. But the thread title isn't 'people who drive badly are bloody dangerous and something should be done about them' it refers to mobility scooter drivers, and the whole argument is based on the actions of the one person the OP encountered this morning, and anecdotes others have waded in with. Hardly a comprehensive survey on mobility scooter users.