Mobility scooters must have insurance

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Mobility scooters must have insurance
Chris Wheal
Apr 18th 2011Text

Seventy-year-old retired secretary Audrey King has demanded compulsory insurance for mobility scooter users who injure pedestrians after she was knocked down at an indoor market. She broke her hip and thigh bone but the scooter user was not insured and King has been left penniless and in pain.

Government priority?
The last government issued a consultation in March 2010 on whether mobility scooter and powered wheelchair users should face tests and be forced to buy insurance like other vehicle drivers. But the idea was kicked into the long grass by the election and the change of government.

A transport department spokeswoman told Daily Finance: "We advise mobility vehicle users that having insurance is a good idea and we were consulting on making it compulsory before the election. There hasn't been any response to that consultation since and we have no timetable for one."

Injuries
King spent six days in hospital. Doctors had to fit a pin and screw in her leg. She has been on painkillers for six week and has to use a walking frame. She may need a hip replacement operation as a result of the crash. With no insurance payout, King must to sue the driver for negligence.

King told Daily Finance: "I was in Fleetwood market near Wigan and the thing about these scooters is you don't hear them coming. She came careering along, clipped my friend's leg but spun me around. Two stallholders said she was driving like a bat out of hell and they had had to jump out of her way.

"Had she hit a child I am sure she would have killed that child. It was a stone floor. It is going to take me two years to recover from this injury. I face a long, hard road to rehabilitation – all to get back to where I was before she hit me."

Lawyers
Joanne Berry, partner at law firm Pannone, which is representing King, said: "We have had five or six accidents from mobility scooters reported in the past few months and the numbers are growing. In many cases the lack of insurance means we have to advise not to carry on.

"Anyone can buy and operate a scooter, causing a potential danger. Basic testing and insurance requirements would give some protection to pedestrians. There has to be a balance. Disabled people need independence but insurance would be a means of protecting themselves too. Being sued for negligence could cost them their savings."

King said the government should take action urgently. "The drivers ought to have insurance and they ought to have lessons. They shouldn't be allowed to just drive them out like that. And in the shops and markets the scooters should have their speed restricted," she said.

330,000 scooters
The government's consultation said there were 330,000 mobility scooters and electric wheelchairs in the UK, with many capable of going at 8mph. It questioned the design of them as well as qualifications and licence for users plus compulsory insurance.

"The evidence indicates a very low incidence of injury linked to mobility vehicle use. But concerns have been expressed to Ministers about whether the design standards for mobility scooters remain appropriate and whether we have the right kind of controls on who can own and use these vehicles," it said.

And it pointed out that because these scooters on pavement and in pedestrian areas they are a bigger risk than cycles. "Cyclists are not required to hold insurance and so you might think it unfair to require mobility vehicle users to have insurance. It should be borne in mind that pedal cyclists do not normally mix with pedestrians in the way mobility vehicles are allowed to."

Action now
It is time to dust off that consultation and take action at once. Dangerous drivers of any vehicle must be made to pay. Compulsory insurance is the only sensible way forward.

I have to agree...One of these drivers ran into me from behind with his "Mobility Scooter" missile in Melton Market last year and iust looked at me as if it was my fault for being there...

I once had the misfortune to be walking down the road to my house, when a woman, on a mobility scooter, turned onto her drive, right in front of me, nearly knocking me over. I said something about manners and road etiquette and she replied 'I turn into my drive at this time every day, can't you see my garage door is open, ready for me to drive in?' I was that gobsmacked, I just nodded and walked off...........

Have one off those run over your toes and you will know it