A coroner has issued a warning over the lack of brakes of mobility scooters after a grandmother was killed by speeding traffic after being unable to stop herself from hurtling down a steep hill.
Angela Carney, 65, was killed when she could not stop her scooter hurtling down the steep slope.
The ‘loving’ grandmother had put her scooter into ‘freewheel’ mode, which allows the user to push or pull the vehicle manually.
But as she descended the steep hill, Ms Carney was unable to turn freewheel mode off and the scooter did not have an emergency brake which allowed her to override it.
As a result, her scooter sped into a junction and into the path of a Nissan Navara pickup truck in Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire.
Ms Carney suffered ‘severe’ injuries from the incident and later died in hospital.
During an inquest into Ms Carney’s death, senior coroner Mark Fleming said he fears more mobility scooter users will die due to older models not being fitted with emergency brakes.
Britain has previously been dubbed Europe’s ‘mobility scooter capital’ with an estimated 350,000 to 400,000 currently in use.
Although newer scooters tend to be fitted with emergency brakes, many older models – such as the one Ms Carney used – do not.
A report into the incident from Mr Fleming said: ‘On the afternoon of [Sept 26], Angela left her home address on her 2005 model Monarch Compact special edition, four-wheel single-seater mobility scooter.
‘Before setting off she moved her scooter out of her front garden and onto the footpath on Westcliffe Road by activating the freewheel mode via a lever near the rear wheel.
‘Westcliffe Road has a 4.7 per cent downward gradient on the southerly approach to a give-way junction with Westgate.
‘Angela, contrary to the instruction manual, did not take the scooter off the freewheel drive by engaging the engine with her ignition key.
‘As a consequence, she was unable to stop the scooter because the brakes could only be activated by engine engagement.
‘This resulted in the scooter proceeding down the footpath of Westcliffe Road at speed towards the junction with Westgate and directly into the path of a Nissan Navara pickup, resulting in her suffering severe injuries to which she sadly succumbed notwithstanding treatment at the hospital and died.
‘It was found that the circumstance of the collision was such that it prevented the driver of the Nissan from taking evasive action.
‘I was concerned to find that there was no fail-safe braking mechanism on the scooter to enable an emergency stop to take place in the event of the negligence of the rider.’
He continued: ‘Although it is my understanding that more recently designed and manufactured mobility scooters are manufactured with a secondary braking system by way of a fitted handbrake mechanism, I am concerned that other manufacturers may be producing scooters without such an independent braking mechanism.
‘I also have a concern that there may be many other older second-hand models on the second-hand market that are being used, which all combined has worrying safety implications for the riders and members of the public.’
Mr Fleming also wrote to the Department of Transport expressing his concerns, who have until March 7 to respond.
Following her death, Ms Carney’s family said: ‘Our dear mum, also loving nana, great-nana, sister and auntie was tragically taken away from us.
‘Angela was a kind and loving soul whose door was always open to anyone; she will be sadly missed by her family and everyone who knew her.
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