Mandatory license and insurance for mobility scooters

[Auburngal]

The thread of elderly people and driving has spurred this thread.

Mobility scooters have provided freedom for those who can’t walk far.

But I think based on my experiences of seeing mobility scooter users in my work, other shops and where I live, there should be a license and insurance.

I believe many didn’t drive a car prior so I have no concept of control and speed. Either their disability/health conditions or with women, their late husband did the driving and she never drove at all.

Some drive at the max speed in shops - it’s only 4mph is max speed inside and in busy areas. My colleague got run over by a mobility scooter user. She was caught by her work fleece which was fully unzipped as she was crouching to fill a shelf. She was dragged about 5m and shouting by at least 5 people didn’t do anything as the guy was deaf. She had massive bruises on her legs.

A few months ago I was topping up the bananas and a lady crashed into the back of my legs. No apologies.

About 7 years ago a man on his mobility scooter missed the corner and collided into the end of the aisle where we had promotional bottles of wine. About 30 bottles were smashed and he carried on.

There is an issue with many mobility scooters users oblivious to their actions and attitude problems.

I believe that sanctions of dangerous use of mobility scooters should be the same as using a car. Mobility scooters are not classed as vehicles in law.

There have been people who have died after being hit by mobility scooters like here www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-65383596.amp

Yes 👌 I would love a sturdy scooter so I could explore the beautiful countryside where I live. Sadly they're out of my price range. One day! At the moment I can barely get around pavements and I have an epioc (electrically powered indoor outdoor chair). Honestly if I was required to get insurance I wouldn't because I've never caused anyone any harm or damaged anything other than myself.

Can I use the same excuse not to get car insurance?

I'm not that enthusiastic about society as it is, based upon your attitude. I like to think that it isn't like it everywhere, and hope that you don't suddenly succumb to a painful or degenerative condition that means you would be reliant upon a mobility scooter in order to access hospital treatment and monitoring. I also hope that you aren't on the receiving of a cleaner declaring that it's just you being lazy and greedy/fat and she reckons you'll be dead soon. Or on the receiving end of government policy that you've only escaped due to not being ill or disabled.

I know I certainly wouldn't want to be the wife of the bloke you're running an NHS Trust death pool on and read what you've said here about him. I would think that you wouldn't like to be spoken about like that, either.

There is a design fault that is very dangerous and needs addressing.

To go faster you pull the lever towards your hand, as if pressing the brakes on a bike. Think about what a cyclist does instinctively when stopping suddenly. They clutch the handlebars and their fingers pull the brake towards them. It's not only the instinctive response for anyone who has learned to ride a bike, it's the instinctive response if you're falling off something.

That is exactly how a mobility scooter is operated if you want to accelerate. WTF were they thinking?

To slow down you have to let go. Handy if you're prone to falling asleep perhaps but nothing else.

Is your car an essential mobility aide? You can't get around any other way? Like I said above, I'm not paying to go outside. That's not the society we live in. My chair is my legs.

I don't want more barriers in the way if disabled people (I would love the supermarkets to be more wheelchair friendly, for starters), but there should be mandatory training for anyone buying a class 2 or 3 scooter. If you are not used to them or your reflexes have deteriorated, the bulky ones can be a nightmare to manoeuvre. I also think some common sense needs to be applied: if a person is visually impaired or has dementia, don't sell a massive road scooter to them with no sensors.

I also support training and insurance for owners bikes and e-scooters: it might save a life. There are idiots on the road at every age, but I like to think most people don't go out of their way to drive recklessly.

I was driving towards a major roundabout and the traffic suddenly went very slow. In the distance I saw an elderly woman riding a mobility scooter around it!

She could have been injured or she could have caused a massive accident

I was on crutches for six months in early 2022 due to something that no doctor has yet explained (yes, qualified people with more letters after their name than whats in yours).

There didn't seem to be an end in sight and I gained two stone in that time, compounding my original problem because I fell into the very easy trap of continuing to eat as though I was still mobile and yes, through boredom and for comfort too.

The knee doctor said in the summer of 2022 that there was nothing wrong with me and that I should get moving. I fully admit that I cried on the way home from the hospital but the very next day, I got my bike out and started riding. It was as tough as hell but within 3 months I was back at work, albeit in a great deal of pain.

The excess weight fell off and made the pain easier. As of today, I still have discomfort rather than pain but I imagine my mobility will never be as it was.

If you are able to actually read posts, rather than react to what you think they say, you will realise I never said anyone was lazy or greedy. I simply pointed out that getting a scooter is as easy as buying a bike and that it is an easy trap to continue to eat as though you are mobile and that, perhaps, a prescription should be needed to get one.

I am sure you agree that morphine should not be available without prescription, as although it is a powerful painkiller, it is very dangerous and very easy to become addicted to or overdose on.

Perhaps you will accuse me of being 'painist' or something and cry to the mods about that.

Maybe you missed it up thread but class 3 mobility scooters are road legal.

My sons car is a motability car. Obviously, he has insurance but he does have to give up a portion of his PIP, so it is not free.

If you claim PIP, you should be able to get a mobility scooter under the motability scheme.

Just to add that NHS wheelchair services power chairs have their own insurance.
Chairs and scooters from Motability are leased and have their own insurance.
Chairs and scooters from places like Millercare are either leased or on hire purchase and you have to have their insurance or prove that you have your own.
There will be a small minority of people who are uninsured and they are not outside of the law. If another wheelchair or scooter user ran over my small child I'd do the same thing as I would if a fast walking biped knocked them over.

I understand that. But a car does not replace a basic function like being able to walk around your home, workplace and places in the community. Without his car, can your son visit a toilet inside a large public building that he is already inside of? Obviously that's a rhetorical question. Comparing a chair or scooter with a car is a strawman/derail.

This - absolutely this.
And I'll add to the list of things that need to be changed - dog owners who use extendable leads so their dog is wandering all over the cycle path (I live in a town with fantastic cycle path access to most places). And for the love of God can Asda please change their chiller cabinets back to that you don't have to open a door to access the items? I can't physically open them because the front of my scooter blocks the door IYSWIM. Oh and shops that have multiple items stacked at the ends of the aisle so turning the corner becomes impossible and you have to reverse right back up the aisle - looking at you WH Smith (only post office in town).

I use a 4mph scooter. It's my lifeline and the only way I can potter around the shops. I'm not old or infirm, my legs just don't work as they should (Fibro). I do think there needs to be more regulation around the larger 8mph+ scooters. There's a man in my town who has one that looks like a Harley - it's easily as big as a motorbike. He zooms around the pedestrianised town centre like a race track and swore at me on the cycle path the other day as he couldn't overtake me.

I only mentioned cars because you claimed you wouldn't get insurance for a mobility scooter because you 'haven't hurt anyone or anything yet'.

The insurance is there in case you ever do and I pointed out that I should not need car insurance if I used the same argument as you.

I had to use a mobility scooter a few years ago on holiday, when my MS was bad. It was for more difficult than driving a car! I had two crashes.

Ah OK. I am insured but I don't pay for it directly. I wouldn't pay for it though. Because where does that end? We don't ask blind people to insure their sticks in case it brushes against our leg on the way past and startles us. People with walkers don't have ro get them insured in case they topple over on the bus and ding us on the leg. If it's an essential item that someone needs to live then adding a mandatory cost is immoral imo.

Edit- I'm aware that I'm venturing into whataboutism. I just don't think that there is a league of uninsured scooter users terrorising the country. Most people are insured and the law sweeps up the rest when it comes to accidents.

This.

Heavier and faster models should come with something more even if just training to help ensure wider public safety.

DH has an electric assist bike - it's light but it does get up quite a speed - so training and insurance doesn't sound like a terrible idea to me there either.

Insurance doesn’t make you liable for injuries/damages you cause - you already are - it just means the insurer pays rather than you. So a 14 year old in a powered wheel chair causing harm would still be responsible whether or not they have insurance. The difference is when granny steers her powered ‘mobility aid’ into a car causing it to veer into pedestrian and causing them lifelong injuries she won’t need to sell her house to pay compensation and the injured party will be guaranteed funds to rebuild their life.

They absolutely all should have insurance. I think this should extend to any powered vehicle including motorised bicycles like e-bikes (motorised scooters are of course illegal except on private land).

I also think they should have a licence for anything going over 3 mph. Not a driving licence but licence of capacity/ability. One with more criteria for more powerful vehicles. At the moment there is nothing to stop a completely blind individual with dementia driving what amounts to a small electric car at 15 mph down the high street.

If you’re going that far, extend it to cyclists as well. And to every pedestrian that wanders around staring at their phone. Trust me, 90kg of human landing on your stationary wheelchair because they weren’t looking where they were going also results in injuries.

At the moment there is nothing to stop a completely blind individual with dementia driving what amounts to a small electric car at 15 mph down the high street.

They could also do it whilst drunk. A mobility scooter is not classed as a motorised vehicle so the rider can't be breathalysed.

So if you cause an accident you are happy to be made bankrupt?

So you're just choosing to ignore my other comments? Mine is insured by a third party. As are most. I also had a 'driving test'. As do most. This is a disabled-bashing thread nothing more.

And yeah good luck suing me 😄 You can have my 11yr old TV and 20yr old hairdryer. It wouldn't get that far because I don't go around running into people on purpose. I'm very cautious because I'm in control of a 13st chunk of metal. The amount of ignoramouses who walk in front of me without looking though... any insurance for that.

@CraftyGoblin on MN, like in wider society, people all too often seem to leave disability out of DE&I. But if people are prepared to say that Black Lives Matter or that women should have equal rights and pay, or that love is love, they should not need to be told that disabled people are human and their equals. Those of us with impaired mobility might move about the world differently to the majority, but we do so with a damn sight more care BECAUSE WE HAVE NO CHOICE. Our wheels are our legs. This thread is a disgrace.

Maybe nobody should be allowed to walk the pavements unattended without training or insurance, given that right now, the number of times you and I - for example - have injured other pedestrians is zero, versus countless times we’ve been injured and/or abused by other pedestrians. FFS.

@Auburngal the main problem is that the majority of mobility scooter user have never actually owned or even driven a car!! they have no idea of the highway code!! they should really have to pass a basic highway code test!! I have seen them absolutely flying down the pavements in our town and driving round roundabouts with the bigger engined ones! no one can see them because of the bushes on the roundabouts!!

I agree with all of this! Thank you 🙏