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!

JoanHickson

My father uses a mobility scooter and he is the first to say they need to be used with care. He has chosen to insure his so should he collide with someone/thing he is covered. Dad actually thinks some sort of registration scheme is long overdue.

My lovely mother in law was an independent, busy and active 75 year old until some utter fool in a mobility scooter, so pissed he couldn't see straight, ran into her and broke both of her hips. He couldn't even remember doing it . That one incident, we're certain, led to her premature death a couple of years later.

She lived in a small village where everyone knows everyone so despite us all insisting he should at the very least apologise, at the most be reported, she didn't want to make a fuss.

When I was waiting for a hip replacement and using 2 sticks I had one man in the supermarket knock me to the floor with his mobility scooter. I was standing still and he just ran into me. Accidents do happen but he took no responsibility and yelled at me for not getting out of his way. I pointed out the sticks and said I physically couldn't. He yelled again that I was too young to need walking sticks and was putting it on to claim benefits, my then 6 year old yelled at him that mummy needed an operation and that he should know how hard it is when your legs don't work properly, that he should say sorry and not be so nasty, then she burst into tears because she couldn't help me get up. He went away very red faced leaving me to struggle back to my feet and comfort my daughter (was very proud of her though).

I know what it's like for people with mobility restrictions my friend has MS and uses a wheelchair. The lack of awareness of people to the fact that she is there and peoples rudeness can be breathtaking, so I can see it from both sides having had to negotiate busy town centers pushing her. Indeed the times I had to quickly hobble to the side of the path when I was on sticks for seemingly perfectly able bodied people was amazing and the amount of parents that just allowed their kids to just run into me on the school run.... but that's a whole other rant.

There should be some form of regulation, but you can't legislate for some people being utter fuckwits unfortunately. There needs to be greater awareness on both sides.

Felicity what an incredibly nasty post. I suggest you spend some time in a wheelchair and see where she was coming from. It's so much easier to take a step to the side than to manoeuvre a wheelchair around someone who is just standing in the way. Why is it entitled to ask? Should disabled people have to grovel for things to make their lives easier or be treated like human beings?

1. How do you know I haven't? You know what they say about assumption.

1. It might be much easier to ask someone to move aside but usually you'd do that politely, not by barking 'MOVE!' at the poor sod who happened to be in the way on that particular day.

1. Stating the obvious, that not everyone in a wheelchair isn't Mary Poppins and sweetness and light does not an 'incredibly nasty post' make.

Yes, incredibly dangerous. One woman locally takes hers down the middle of road even round blind bends and one of these days there will be an accident as not many cars go round the bends slow enough for a mobility scooter. They should have better protection for the rider and they should have to wear a helmet.

YANBU high time they were regulated with rules and training provided for the users. We saw one on the same side of the Road as us but going in the opposite direction and it was dark as well. Another going very fast round a blind bend if I hadn't reacted quickly it would have knocked me of my feet. Lastly one in Tesco with the wife perched on the back of it going down the aisles.

They definitely need regulation. I was standing at a pedestrian crossing with ds in his pram when I was hit very hard from behind by a man on a scooter- he pushed us out onto the road in front of oncoming traffic and it was lucky that the driver coming towards us spotted what had happened in time, otherwise we could have been badly injured or worse. The man didn't even stop, he just sped off. I was livid.

There used to be a woman near us who took her two children about on a mobility scooter, one on her lap, the other cross legged in the footrest, on the road! She moved. She might still be doing it in her new area. She was not only a danger to herself and her children but to other road users as she gaily drove down the middle of the road.
I don't resent her having a mobility scooter, but I do think she should be subject to restrictions.

I take the kids on mine too. On the pavement though.

Can you get a little pull along child carriage, like they do for bikes?

We actually have a bike one, it wont fit to it though. And they dont make them that attach to scooters. Like most disability related stuff, the companies assume everyone is old and beige, with no need for child trailers :(

There is a gap in the market there. By the time I needed a scooter my dc were in secondary school.

I think there does need to be something, particularly after reading about this bloke who ended up gaily pootling down the M1 on his. Not the first time I've read something like that either.

Yes you can get carriages for scooters. I regularly see a chap in Leith who has a customised scooter with Harley Davidson handles and tows wee carriage that his dog sits in. It looks amazing!
He also has some sort of bell that rings pretty constantly so people are alerted and has flags on sort of long bendy poles at the back which make the whole scooter more visible.
I saw him tonight on the Bonnington area

Talking of bells I add an odd experience today.

I was in a shop no blockages just going along and a stranger Gentlemen out of nowhere announced I require a bell. I have no idea why someone would say such a thing he was side on to me and acknowledged me before I passed him.

On a plus point another kind gentlemen helped me out of a shop by getting a door.

I only had one small child wonder in my path and then it's parent do the same a minute later, she was very I just smiled and was grateful she didn't blame me for the double near miss She and her child almost caused.