‘We can’t bring Mum back, but we can make mobility scooter laws tougher’

It was a quiet Wednesday afternoon in Taunton and Natalie Young[1] had popped over the road from her Pegasus retirement home to pick up a few groceries from Morrisons. The sprightly 92-year-old liked to get out at least once a day, and was just paying up at the checkout. Waiting her turn behind was an elderly woman on a mobility scooter[2].

Suddenly, and without warning, the electric vehicle shot forward and rammed into Young with force, knocking her to the ground.

Seemingly out of control and panicked, the driver managed to reverse back, but then pressed the accelerator and struck her again, going over her legs on both occasions.

As shoppers raced to help the stricken grandmother, the scooter driver quietly fled the scene - and has not been identified or heard from since. Young, on the other hand, was whisked to hospital in a state of shock after suffering a fractured arm and cuts and bruises across her legs. Advertisement

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Over the following five weeks, her health rapidly deteriorated. And on April 13 2022, she died; a direct result of the "trauma and insult" she had suffered in the crash, her inquest concluded, which ultimately proved "too much for her physiological reserve".

Young's death so concerned Samantha Marsh, senior coroner for Somerset, she felt compelled to write to the Department for Transport. Unlike cars and motorbikes, no licence, training or any sort of cognitive or competency test is currently needed to drive mobility scooters on Britain's roads and pavements, at a maximum speed of 8mph and 4mph respectively.

Drink drive rules don't apply either.

An eyewitness who saw Young run over recalled the elderly driver saying it was 'the first time she had used the scooter and would not be using it again'

An eyewitness who saw Young run over recalled the elderly driver saying it was 'the first time she had used the scooter and would not be using it again'

The lack of regulation simply wasn't good enough. "Someone who is legally prevented from driving due to age, infirmity or other inability is freely able to own, use and operate a mobility scooter without any restriction whatsoever," she wrote in her report.

"Mobility scooters can reach a fast enough speed to pose a significant risk to the entire community and population, but specifically, small children, pregnant mothers and the elderly who are all particularly vulnerable to being impacted at speed by a blunt-force object and dying as a result of the injuries that they sustain." Advertisement Advertisement

Without action, she warned, there would be more deaths.

And so it has come to pass.

Official figures last week have revealed 2023 - the year after Young's death - saw a record number of deaths involving mobility scooters[3]. Sixteen people died, while 90 were seriously hurt and a further 222 suffered minor injuries.

Indeed, the number of deaths has risen dramatically over the past decade - increasing 20 per cent on average year on year. In fact, users are two and a half times more likely to be killed in a crash than other road users, according to analysis by Surewise, which insures more than 130,000 mobility scooters across the UK.

"We aren't surprised the numbers have gone up - and until something gets done they'll keep doing so," says Young's youngest son Robin, 57.

Since their mother's death, he and his two older brothers - Rupert, 60, and Rod, 64 - have been campaigning to toughen up mobility scooter regulation. This, they emphasise, would not just protect the public but scooter users themselves too. So far, their efforts have fallen on deaf ears.

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So what is behind the rise in casualties? One factor may simply be the dramatic increase in user numbers.

Just over four decades ago, a mobility scooter had never been seen on British streets. By 2014, there were upwards of 300,000. A decade on, there are now probably around 800,000 in use, estimates Professor Duncan Guest, the UK's premier - and pretty much only - academic expert on mobility scooters.

But, say the Young brothers, increased use isn't the only reason for the sharp rise in fatal incidents[4].

Instead, they believe it is likely the manner in which new users of the scooters take to the streets that poses a particular problem.

In July this year an unnamed woman in her 70s fell to her death after driving her scooter off the 26ft high sea wall in Dawlish, Devon. While in January, an inquest heard how John Gray, 76, dozed off on his scooter and drove off the side of a beach promenade[5] in Felixstowe, Suffolk. He died four days later.

Drawing on expert evidence, the coroner concluded that "falling asleep on a mobility scooter was not uncommon, and happened more frequently than the general public might think".

A recent survey of 250 users by Nottingham Trent University found only one in three mobility scooter users had received any form of training on how to drive the vehicle safely. "When you're sold one in a shop, you have to be trained on how to use it before you leave. But of course people buy them online, they get them second-hand, so lots of people haven't. And when they do, it's mostly just about control of the vehicle," says Prof Guest, who led the study.

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"It's like being told how to control a car without anyone telling you what might happen when you're driving it," he says. In Young's case, an eyewitness later told her sons he recalled the elderly driver, who he estimated was in her early 80s, saying it was "the first time she had used the scooter and would not be using it again".

He added: "A passing male shopper said she had crashed into a shopping display a little earlier."

Robin, Rod and Rupert Young have been campaigning for a change in the law after their mother's death

Robin, Rod and Rupert Young have been campaigning for a change in the law after their mother's death

Further complicating the problem is users aren't required to have insurance - and many don't, says James McNally, a personal injury lawyer at Slee Blackwell. As a result, solicitors on a "no win, no fee" basis are unlikely to take on such cases - because where the defendant is personally liable, the likelihood of recovering the money is far less likely. "We've had people who have suffered quite nasty injuries because they've been barrelled into while doing their shopping in the supermarket. But if they [the scooter users] are not insured, you're going to struggle to find anyone to represent you," says McNally.

Such cases, though rare, are not without precedence.

In 2005, supermarket worker Denise Bird sued a disabled mother whose uninsured scooter crashed into her while she was stacking shelves in Morrisons in Rhyl, North Wales. The compensation case over her injured knee ended up escalating into a legal tit-for-tat that lasted five years.

The defendant, Gloria Brown, filed a counter claim that the accident had in fact been caused by another scooter "shunting" into her. When a judge ruled in favour of the employee, Brown claimed she would have to sell her house[6] to afford the near GBP16,000 in damages and court costs.

She was eventually allowed to pay it back in monthly instalments of GBP100. Solicitors don't appear to be jumping at the chance to repeat the experience. Advertisement

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While mobility scooter users don't need to be insured, if they do intend to drive on the road they must be registered with the DVLA and obey the rules of the road - aside, it seems, from one. A handful of cases in the news suggests drink driving bans don't apply to mobility scooter users because they don't actually need a licence.

In one case, a member of the public called police after spotting a middle-aged man swerving across the road on his way home from a night out in Colchester in the early hours of the morning in 2017. When officers arrived, the man, who suffered from muscular dystrophy, had lost a shoe and was unable to sit up in his seat.

But despite admitting to having drunk a bottle of whisky, and receiving 10 points on his licence, he was reportedly allowed to continue driving his scooter.

Such a loophole certainly seems dangerous. Drunk or not, a large number of accidents involving mobility scooters are occurring on the nation's roads. Of the handful of mobility scooter deaths that made the news this year, three were killed after crashing into cars.

All were elderly men and at least two happened at junctions. In May, police had to escort an elderly mobility scooter rider off a dual carriageway[7]. A picture shows an officer walking alongside the man, who was said to be "not over familiar with the area", on the A442 in Telford, Shropshire.

Prof Guest's own father Gordon, 72, uses a mobility scooter after suffering from polio as a young boy. "I've had some close calls on the road," says the former lecturer, who lives in Cullompton, Devon, and is fully insured. "Cars get really irritated if they're stuck behind me, but I can't go any faster than 8mph.

It's harder on the narrow country roads where there's no pavement. The last thing delivery drivers and lorries expect when they're going fast... is a little scooter. Some have only just managed to stop in time.

I'm lucky I haven't been hit." If anything, Gordon says, it might be sensible to let scooters go faster.

Gordon Guest, 72, says he's had some 'close calls'

Gordon Guest, 72, says he's had some 'close calls' - Dale Cherry

The Telegraph spoke to two mobility users that had been involved in crashes - and both claim it was in fact the other vehicle's fault. Peter Cross, 79, from Upper Caldecote, Bedfordshire, was halfway across a zebra crossing on a 30mph road when an elderly driver failed to stop and tore half the front off his scooter. Either she had slow reactions or she wasn't looking, he alleges.

Tim Worner, 62, was taking his cockapoo Holly for a walk down his road in Broadstone, Dorset, when a neighbour on the school run shot off her drive, knocked him sideways, and wedged him under the car, he says. Both were fully insured and believe they took reasonable measures to drive safely. Advertisement

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But what all three men highlight is a persistent lack of awareness - not their own, but other drivers and pedestrians. (Most readers, for example, may be unaware that mobility scooters are not legally allowed in cycle lanes - one of the few restrictions on their use.) For his study, Prof Guest set up participants with GoPro cameras and filmed them around Nottingham. "You realise it's other people, not the mobility users, who are the biggest hazard. They're unpredictable," he says.

"When you're scooting around, people don't see you because you're low down," says Gordon. "People assume a scooter can jump out of the way, which it can't. It doesn't go side to side easily and has a wide turning circle.

So quite often, you have to just stop and wait for someone who's got their earphones in or looking at their phone to walk into you. That happens a lot, almost every time I'm out."

In their fight for reform, the Young brothers are keen not to diminish the needs of mobility users. "It's a sensitive issue," says the eldest, Rod, a former British Airways captain. "There are vulnerable people who need these vehicles to get around. We absolutely recognise that.

But you can equally say that about cars, and there are certain rules under which you're required to be able to drive them."

The family are calling for all mobility scooter users to be subjected to a competency test and require a valid driving licence, or failing that a medical certificate. The vehicle must also be registered to them and insurance must be compulsory, they argue. Advertisement

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"We need someone to bring it up in Parliament and say 'look, something needs to change'," says Robin. "We can't bring back mum. We just want to try and do something so others don't have to go through what we went through. To make everybody a bit safer."

The Telegraph approached the Department for Transport for comment.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 3 months with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.[8]

References

  1. ^ Natalie Young (www.telegraph.co.uk)
  2. ^ mobility scooter (www.telegraph.co.uk)
  3. ^ record number of deaths involving mobility scooters (www.telegraph.co.uk)
  4. ^ fatal incidents (www.telegraph.co.uk)
  5. ^ drove off the side of a beach promenade (www.telegraph.co.uk)
  6. ^ Brown claimed she would have to sell her house (www.telegraph.co.uk)
  7. ^ dual carriageway (www.telegraph.co.uk)
  8. ^ Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism.

    Try The Telegraph free for 3 months with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. (secure.telegraph.co.uk)