To think that mobility scooters are bloody dangerous?!

[EmeraldThief]

I don't have a problem with them if they are used responsibly and with consideration for other members of the public, but more often than not they aren't. I've just been bashed in the foot by a hulking great one in Morrisons, why the man driving it felt the need to use one of that size in a supermarket when they provide their own smaller and more suitable for going around shop mobility scooters, I don't know? I couldn't have very easily end up with a broken foot, and I should imagine an elderly person could have been quite badly hurt by it.

Furthermore if he'd actually looked where he was going or said excuse me, before just barging through I'd have moved out of the way.

Why are these things allowed on roads, pavements and in shops without any kind of training or licensing? Half of the people who use them don't seem to know how to control them properly!

Yes you are right, Inflexible. When people are not watching what they are doing and can't see you as you are below their line of sight window shopping they walk into you, you have to stop to avoid them and get irate with you for them not looking where they are going. To stop you have to let go of the power. No damage done no thanks to their careless behaviour and thanks to your quick thinking. They then tell others a very different story the near miss thanks to the person in mobility scooter gets passed on to whoever will listen, as those disabled/old people are a menage ploughing into people, no mention of us walkers don't look where we are going.

Within both modes there is also a dial which allows you to further control your speed.
On the older scooters I have used there isnt a high/low gear it is just a dial to control speed.

Yes I regularly end up with people almost sat in my lap when im in the wheelchair, who just dont 'see' you. Its not so bad in the scooter as I am taller-also I can reach more stuff which is always a bonus! :)

Worra

I remember that incident from the others forum involving the little girl too. I seem to remember that the woman driving it refused to get off it too when the child was pinned underneath and passers by had to lift the scooter and woman off, before she made her escape.

I was convinced back then that scooter users should have basic training provided before they were allowed to operate them in public, plus liability insurance.

Nothing has changed my mind over the subsequent years, in fact most people have anecdotes about themselves, or people close to them, being injured.

I agree with mandatory testing and insurance for mobility scooters. Testing to be carried out every two years.

Joan, I don't understand how you can write that post, when you have read about the incidents that Worra talked about, and when you have seen my posts about my mil and my son.

I am not denying that pedestrians can be ignorant and get in the way, not look where they are going etc, but equally the person using the mobility scooter can be at fault. For you to imply that people like my mil and my son are somehow spinning the incidents to make the person using the mobility scooter be blamed erroneously, is shocking!

You are implying that, not me.

They are undoubtedly a godsend for some but they are also dangerous and some people use them with no thought for others.

My nan when out hobbling along on two sticks had someone come zooming up behind her on the pavement beeping her to move then got irrate when she didn't.

If you are going to use one great but just remember they don't give you ownership of pavements/aisles and go slowly and carefully!

Few quick FYIs...

• These ar different things. Class 1 is for pavements only, restricted to 4mph (mine goes at 'brisk walk' speed at most) class 3 are the road ones and do have to be taxed (although insurance is optional).
• phrases such as "the disabled" and "wheelchair bound" arent great. I'll assume you dont know this, i'm not offended :)

I do agree they are dangerous in the wrong hands. Again, as per many things, cars, bikes, scooters, even something llike a walking stick!! But i'm torn, without mine i'd be stuck housebound again. And when it comes to potential problems (say hearing or eyesigt problems), what is the alternative if people are deemed unsafe?

One stupid thing about them (mine anyway, i have a class one, i dont know about class three), is the lack of brakes. Even if you see you are going to collide, all you can do is come off the "throttle"

Shakirasma yes, I'd forgotten about that bit.

How am I implying that, Joan?

The little girl Worra mentions lives near me. The accident happened in a nearby town. The lady driving the scooter suffered from dementia, and wasn't even aware that she had hit and seriously injured a toddler. In fact, when stopped she repeatedly banged her walking stick on the ground while chanting that she wanted to go shopping. Despite this, the police could do nothing to stop her continuing to drive her scooter.

I can see that for most people they are a godsend, but someone like this lady poses a risk to both herself and other pedestrians. There should be proper training and mandatory insurance.

I had to ride a whole bunch of electric wheelchairs and mobility scooters once (part of a job I was doing and the only way to get them all from a to b).

It was in a very crowded area, and it was overwhelming how many people don't notice you and walk directly in your path, or trip over you when you have to stop abruptly to avoid hitting someone else who has cut you up without noticing.
It was a relief to get off at the other end and go back to weaving and darting amongst people as normal.
At least I had that opportunity and choice though, and could.

They are a godsend to people, and a lifeline to some sort of normality and things we/I take for granted as fully able bodied.

I do, however, think that they couldn't be on the NSL roads - I came across one on a sharp bend last year, didn't hit it as I was meandering along that day and had slowed massively for the bend.
I checked the road laws when I got in as I was going to phone the local police to warn them as he was an accident waiting to happen, and was surprised to find it is totally legal to use them on the roads.

There are some people that can be spectacularly unaware and dangerous on them, but those few are not representative of the rest, just like I am not representative of 'all women/people with dark hair/whatever' when I fuck up.

I saw a little girl get run over by one once in town. She was about 4 and her and her family were stood still outside a shop looking in the window when it happened, the scooter came along at quite a speed and literally ran her over (she got stuck underneath it). He hadn't even noticed he had hit anyone let alone have them trapped underneath his scooter - it was only when the family and passers by including myself intervened that he stopped. I dont know if she was ok but an ambulance was called and I don't know what happened to him as I had to go back to work but it was horrible.
So yes, I think they are dangerous in the wrong hands. I have no problem with people using them but I think some people have no idea how dangerous they can actually be.

Having mobility problems that have seen me in a wheelchair at times I'm well aware of how useful mobility scooters are . However, it is disingenuous to suggest that all users are capable of operating them safely for a variety of reasons, both physical and mental as the first hand experiences related above prove.
Yes there should be mandatory training and testing of all users to ensure that not only do they know how to operate the scooter safely but also that they are fully capable of doing so.
This is a heavy, powered vehicle that can do huge damage to the human body and there should be proper safeguards put on place to ensure the safety of the user and of pedestrians.
Yes, scooter users have the right to benefit from this mobility aid, but they also have a responsibility not to put pedestrians at risk of serious injury.

After posting on this thread earlier I've just watched a mobility scooter go past my house in the middle of the road. He was going the wrong way down a one way street

There's a lady in our village with one. She reverses without looking, while picking her grandson up from school, so surrounded by school children and younger siblings

When scooter users go bad www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/oap-mobility-scooter-chased-terrified-5527426

Sorry - pressed send by mistake after baby knocked over my drink and started screeching!

Basically she doesn't look anywhere except in front, in a very crowded situation and regardless of what manoeuvre she's performing. Everybody now knows and gives her a wide berth, but really she shouldn't be on one of she is so demonstrably incompetent. My daughter had a near miss with her when she was 2 - cut right across our path on the diagonal while crossing a road.

She's the only driver of one I've ever found to be incapable though. But in the wrong hands they can be scary as they're so big.

I was waiting to cross the road once when one plowed into the back of me and pushed me into the road. I was lucky not to be run over.
It was an elderly man who seemed confused.

What Vanilla said.
I have never had an accident on my scooter, but that is because I drive it extremely defensively. I was at a large shopping mall last week and no way could I just pootle around in a relaxed way; I had to be hyper, and I mean hyper vigilant at all times.

People will cut you up, they will walk into you, they will walk towards you two or three abreast, leaving you with nowhere to go. Most worryingly, they will let their toddlers caper around you.

Like I said, I drive mine defensively; if a child comes anywhere near me, I just stop and wait until they are a good distance away. It has to be a two way thing though, like the poster up thread said, people will walk into you, and then give you evils. There are lots of scooters around now, people should try and develop a bit more awareness of them when they are out and about.

Thanks for clarifying re the brakes.

I admit, I am probably one of the annoying people who keeps walking into the path of scooters, wheelchairs, pushchairs, etc. It's nothing personal, it's not that I don't see you exactly, but I have very poor awareness of where things are in relation to me! (Probably related to AS) I am covered in bruises on my legs where I walk into (stationary) objects. I trip over my own feet. I walk into other people.

So I think it does require some give and take. The scooter driver can't assume that everybody had the perceptual and motor ability to be able to avoid them, so needs to be prepared to take evasive action. Just like in a car, you are aware of people approaching from the sides to cross the road, you hope that they won't walk out in front of you, but you're prepared just in case.

Utterly life giving for people who need them - but obviously subject to misuse which is often nobody's fault.

OP, you queried why the user wasn't using a scooter that was better suited to being inside. Probably because he doesn't have one and is making do with what he's got. I absolutely have to have an outside scooter that covers ground quickly. I don't have the funds or the means to have a different scooter to change into the minute I hit the shops. So that's why not. And it is agonising to enter a shop in this hulking great scooter, already feeling humiliated and embarrassed without (as has happened) overhearing comments like you have made here.

It would help if there was some proper guidance regarding what you actually have to do to keep within the law on a scooter. There's no book you can buy about it, no one seems to have centralised all the licenses they're messing about with now and there are reasons why the tax/insurance/ licenses are extremely difficult to fill out which I won't go into (basically the questions are so technical that you would need to have a mobility scooter degree or to have purchased a brand new model from a professional dealer in order to have a hope of knowing the answers).

I have tried to make the following point many times about mobility scooters.

Here the thing about mobility scooters. People don't know this and they desperately need to. This piece of information should be put on the table on each and every debate about scooter safety because changing this issue would radically alter the landscape around this area.
A MOBILITY SCOOTER HAS NO BRAKE.
There is a reason why a car doesn't simply allow you to stop when you bring your foot off the accelerator. It's because the car would stop too damn slowly. Same problem here. Only it's made worse by the fact that if an foreseen situation came up while you were driving a scooter, your instinct reaction would be to grab the handlebars more tightly, as if you were riding a bike - forgetting that you have to let go in order to bring the vehicle to a stop.

Another possible scenario is equally impossible - to avoid a potentially dangerous situation, you may have to let go of the accelerator but try to keep steering - an extremely big ask for someone who has the health issues that got them into the mobility scooter in the first place. In theory, being able to use accelerator and steering bars freely depends on being able to support your own core. You would also need to have quick enough reaction times that, if something happened, and you had to steer or 'brake' safely, you would be able to balance purely on the seat, looking for no support at all from the handbars.

So on the one hand there is a huge problem that isn't simply a 'stop' button that can easily be pressed when an emergency stop is required. On the other hand, the whole steering column is the thing that a mobility scooter is going to lean on, particularly if they have issues. Consequently their ability to steer the vehicle will be influenced and perhaps compromised by their own ability to balance independently.