A pensioner seriously injured by a mobility scooter is calling for a change in the law to force riders to take out insurance.
Audrey King, 70, was shopping with a friend when a disabled woman at the wheel of a scooter crashed into her.
Witnesses at the indoor market helped the widow as she lay on the floor with a broken hip and badly fractured thigh bone.
The rider of the scooter repeatedly apologised for the accident, explaining that her coat had snagged, causing her to lose control.
Mrs King, from Leigh, near Wigan, later discovered the woman was not insured, and is having to sue for compensation in one of the first cases of its kind.
Mobility scooters, which can have a top speed of around 8mph, are not legally defined as motor vehicles.
There is no need for users to have a licence or undergo training – and although the Department for Transport requires scooters capable of exceeding 4mph to be registered with the DVLA for road use, insurance is not compulsory.
This means people injured by negligent users have no method of seeking compensation besides suing.
Now Mrs King, a retired secretary, has called for a change in the law to require all mobility scooter users to be insured against third-party injuries.
She recalled how she was left in ‘agonising pain’ after being knocked over.
‘It was absolutely unbearable. The woman kept on saying “I’m sorry, I’m sorry” but I was too delirious to take it in,’ she added.
Mrs King spent six days in hospital, where she had a pin and screw put into her femur and hip, before being allowed home.
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