Legal Issues
In the UK mobility scooters are classified by The Use of Invalid Carriages on Highways Regulations 1988 as either Class II or Class III Invalid Carriages for legal purposes. A Class II scooter must be limited to 4 mph for use on a footway only, while a Class III scooter must be limited to 8 mph for road/highway use and have an additional 4 mph limiter for footway use. As of March 2010 a government consultation is underway to determine how the law should adapt to increasing scooter use, whether higher road speeds should be allowed and on a replacement for the archaic term 'invalid carriage'. Due to concerns over safety issues and problems with bringing prosecutions against irresponsible users under existing laws, the consultation will also consider whether to make third party insurance mandatory, consider the introduction of compulsory training for users and discuss how to bring scooter users under wider road traffic legislations.
Disability Bracknell told the Committee about four deaths resulting from mobility scooter accidents in one year in Bracknell alone, but there is little evidence to suggest that fatalities on this scale are replicated nationwide.
Read more about this topic: Mobility Scooter
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