Scooter safety course rolled out amidst rising scooter accidents and fatalities
Oxfordshire County Council has launched a new mobility scooter training course for locals to help improve their driving skills and educate them about their responsibilities on the road.
Held in Wantage, Oxfordshire, the new course tests scooter users’ driving skills with an obstacle course. This aims to improve the safety of scooter users while driving, both to themselves and to others.
Having already seen considerable popularity, the Council is hoping to roll the courses out across the rest of Oxfordshire.
Oxfordshire County Council’s Sean Miene told the Oxford Mail: “I hope this group of mobility scooter users increases so that we can educate more people and learn from their experiences.
“This could be a model for each town or village in our county. It is a fantastic initiative and opportunity.”
He added that the courses are also a way for people to come together and socialise.
The course comes following statistics which reveal that 24 mobility scooter users have been injured while on their mobility aid in Oxfordshire in the past five years, as well as one fatality.
Scooter safety has been a great concern in the news recently, with many headlines reporting accidents and fatalities involving mobility scooters.
According to the Department of Transport, there were 260 reported accidents involving mobility scooters in 2016, equating to a 17 percent increase on the previous year and standing in stark contrast to the 84 reported in 2012.
Additionally, the number of fatalities in 2016 also saw a sharp increase, rising by 75 percent on the eight fatalities reported the previous year.
Following these concerning statistics, this has prompted various companies within the mobility industry, such as People First Mobility and ZTW Mobility, launch their own scooter training days to educate users and try and reduce the number of scooter accidents.
