It seems that it's not only the youngsters and company car drivers that most of us consider need
to exercise rather more care when driving but now it seems in my small North Somerset town, Senior Citizens
will have to be included in this category. One old chap anyway!
This afternoon this character went whizzing along a rather straight length of path in his rather narrow axled disabled
scooter at a good rate of knots, cap pulled down over his eyes, cigarette firmly in mouth, one hand on the steering bar
and the other clasping a mobile phone to his ear!
Boys will be boys!
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so good i read it twice........
wear your toe cappers next time you see him and let him run over your boot and watch his teeth fly out with the jolt ;)
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On a serious note, there are several in my neck of the woods who go flat out (as flat out as you can go in a scooter) with no apparent concern for the pedestrians around them. If one of those things hit you at speed, it would clearly do a lot of damage. Why they're not limited to walking pace escapes me.
There's also one chap who drives his on the road. Not only foolish but illegal too? AFAIK they don't have to be taxed.
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or insured.....which is even more scarey if you flatten one.
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'twill keep us on our toes though!
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'Why they're not limited to walking pace escapes me'
They are, if they are to be used on the pavement! In a recent BBC website feature on the Segway scooter thing (which can't be used legally on road or pavement!), I found that, for pavement use disabled scooters have to be limited to 4mph - walking pace. However, there are other scooters for use on road which can go up to 8mph. The question is, how do you tell the difference, and what can you do about it?
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Most round here use the road speed on the footpath;one round here tows a large trailer(on the footpath) and his "significant other" follows behind on her one.
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I saw one old guy drive his goffer straight into a shop, nearly knocked down several people waiting to be served and then hit the glass display cabinet. It was a miracle he didn't smash it. Didn't seem to bother him in the slightest. He reversed out bumping some more people and headed off down the street running into people all the way.
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I've given up counting the amount of times my father has either run over my feet or crashed into me with his mobility scooter whenever I go out for the day with him. Fortunately for me it's one of the smaller ones (A Go-Go).
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There's a youngish bloke near me whose wheelchair seems remarkably quick. It also blasts out the lastest dance tunes, and has the numberplate "Devil 1".
He seems pretty on the ball, and hasn't had any collisions to my knowledge.
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Try visiting Bexhill On Sea sometime!
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These scooters are very annoying in my supermarket! Especially when the person does not have a clue how it works and how to reverse it. The bleep bleeping all over the shop can be annoying!
And without stirring up another argument, on several occasions I have witnessed the "drivers" get out and walk about in the shop and then get back into the buggy. There are some who these buggies are their freedom from being housebound, there are others who are given some independence with them, and there is a minority who are too lazy to walk. I personally know one able bodied person who has one of these and insists on going round my store regularly in it causing chaos when she is perfectly capable of walking.
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and there is a minority who are too lazy to walk.
The same could be said of some car drivers as well Bobby. Doesn't stop them either unfortunately.
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I bought my sister one of these during the final stages of her MS. Spent many happy times riding tandem with her and terrorising shoppers in the Arndale or the Trafford centre.
I do apologise for the bleeping and general irritation in your supermarket Bobby, we would have done all our shopping at Invalids-R-Us except that nobody's bothered to build one yet. Still, you can always extract your revenge by scattering palettes of beer, crates of groceries, boxes of wines and spirits, palette trucks and ill considered promotional/display stacks willy nilly all over the shop floor, or simply discourage us with turnstyles that she had to duck under, or just place clothing racks really close together.
And while I'm at it, if people in Cheshire would trim their bushes once every couple of years especially on narrow pavements with grass edging.
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Dave, sorry if you thought I was being un-sensitive, I didn't mean to come across that way. As I said, the bleeping is annoying and the bad driving can be dangerous at times. What I didn't say is that I wouldn't like to swap places with them.
On a lighter note, back in about 2002, a customer, believe it or not, got a flat tyre in my shop! Don't know how it happened but as it was a nail we assumed he had went over it outside and air finally ran out in the shop. Anyway, at that time these buggies weren't common and the old man was a bit of local celebrity. So we had the strange sight of him sitting in his buggy, having a cup of tea whilst the buggy was jacked up by a set of pallet-lifters and the wheel removed and taken to the Kwik Fit at the other side of the car park to get the puncture fixed!
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No worries Bobby, just championing the underdog...
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There's a place in Nantwich that specialises in "Brazilans". We don't have that problem that much in this part of Cheshire.
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Here's a story from the New Zealand Herald from earlier this year:Link to the story: tinyurl.com/ewqv4
Short-ish condensation:
The pensioner victim of a mobility scooter "hit-and-run" accident is disappointed at the compensation and lack of an apology she's received from her 89-year-old assailant. June Bridgman left Invercargill woman Elva Ellison with three broken bones and a massive haematoma when she hit her twice with her mobility scooter while crossing a street in Picton in January. Bridgman was discharged without conviction in Blenheim District Court earlier this month after pleading guilty to carelessly operating a vehicle causing injury. It is thought to be New Zealand's first prosecution for careless use of a mobility scooter causing injury and Bridgman's family say she intends to keep using the vehicle. Mrs Ellison sought $12,800 in reparations but Bridgman was ordered to pay only $2000. Mrs Ellison and her husband Coley were holidaying in Picton when the accident occurred. She was halfway over a pedestrian crossing when she was struck from behind. "She must have panicked when she hit me the first time and, instead of reversing or stopping, she kept on going and I was in the way." Her husband chased after Bridgman, who fled the scene, and confronted her at home. Mrs Ellison said the 89-year-old failed to display any contrition, instead falsely insisting she had a driver's licence and name-dropping her police officer son. "She wasn't worried about me, she was more concerned about herself. She never said she was sorry or asked how I was."
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and we all think old people are nice..........
i would put on a matrons smock a week after the trial and offer to plug her in .......... (no charge (sic) its all part of the service)
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There is a story about an old boy who charged his up and went on a trip to the next village to have a couple of beers with his mates, problem was he only got half way back again before the batteries went flat and the lights went out, oh how his wife did fret, apparently he had being showing off in the pub carpark, even old boys will be boys!
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Just think a proportion of all the nasty people around now will be odl people one day......
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We are safer in a Supra!
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I was at a motorway entry/exit roundabout recently and couldn't help but notice an electric wheelchair being driven by an old geezer, going the wrong way round the roundabout. Within seconds, nearby motorists formed a sort of roadblock, lots of waving arms, hazard lights blinking, headlamps on etc. and the old chap was guided away from the trouble spot. I wonder if he he reached his destination, or is still trundling along the M3 hard shoulder ?
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