SCOOTER users in Orange are urged to participate in a national survey which has been prompted by a worrying rate of deaths and injuries.
The survey, launched yesterday, will ask users of personal mobility vehicles (also known as scooters or gophers) how and why they get around.
Data from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission shows 442 people were admitted to hospital as the result of a scooter-related accident between 2006 and 2008 and more than 60 deaths were attributed to scooters since the 1980s.
Astley Mobility owner and patron of the Orange Personal Mobility Vehicle Group Paul McCarthy said the national issue of safety was reflected in Orange.
“It has been an issue. We had a fellow who was killed as the result of an accident crossing the lights in front of the Post Office about 12 months ago. Someone just came through the lights. There’s been a number of people who’ve been hit going past driveways with cars reversing, and a person hit down on the roundabout near the Civic Centre,” he said.
Mr McCarthy said he encouraged people to complete the survey to help build a better picture of the needs and safety concerns of scooter users.
However, he said he would be concerned to see the data used as a reason to introduce a licensing or registration system because it would classify scooters as vehicles and remove some of the rights their users enjoyed as pedestrians.
Orange’s Personal Mobility Vehicle Group was formed in part to allow the message of safety to be better communicated to scooter users.
“If there’s an issue with a person, the scooter group will send them out a letter,” Mr McCarthy said.
Mr McCarthy said he believed there were people who should not be using scooters but it was a matter of weighing up their need for mobility.
“There are some who shouldn’t be riding a scooter. Those that we’re really in doubt about, we won’t sell a scooter to. But it gives people a new lease on life who would otherwise sit at home and do nothing,” he said.
Safety tips for users include avoiding crossing at roundabouts and riding on the edge of the footpath to avoid hitting people coming out of buildings.
With no registration system and an increasing number of scooters purchased online, it is difficult to estimate how many scooters are on Orange’s streets.
Les Frost uses a scooter because pain in his legs from a vascular condition prevents him from walking far.
He said common sense was the key to safe riding.
“I can hardly walk. With the scooter I can come in from Clinton Street where I live. You’ve got to treat it like you’re a pedestrian. You don’t go barrelling through the shops on them,” he said.
The survey is available on the NRMA website at www.mynrma.com.au/scooters or the Product Safety Australia website at www.productsafety.gov.au/mobility scooters
Email a friend