PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Mobility Scooters: Accidents (29 January 2015)

Question Asked

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many people have been killed or seriously injured in accidents involving mobility scooters in each of the last five years; and how many of the people so killed or seriously injured were driving the scooter.

Asked by:
Mr Clive Betts (Labour)

Answer

The Department does not hold comprehensive data on personal injury road accidents involving motorised mobility scooters. Data on this issue was first collected (on a non-mandatory basis) in 2011, with 1 out of 51 Police forces in Great Britain supplying data in 2011; 12 in 2012; and 24 in 2013. Across these forces, the number of reported personal injury road accidents involving mobility scooters and the number of drivers of these vehicles who were injured is given in table. The data for earlier years are not available.

The Department is working to obtain data on this issue from all forces by 2016.

Number of casualties in reported accidents involving mobility scooters

in Great Britain: 2011-2013

Severity

2011(1)

2012(2)

2013(3)

Killed

0

1

5

Serious

6

17

26

Slight

4

69

133

All severities

10

87

164

(1) Data from only 1 police force

(2) Data from 12 police forces

(3) Data from 24 police forces

Number of mobility scooter drivers injured in reported accidents in Great Britain: 2011 -2013

Severity

2011(1)

2012(2)

2013(3)

Killed

0

1

5

Serious

4

11

17

Slight

1

42

102

All severities

5

54

124

(1) Data from only 1 police force

(2) Data from 12 police forces

(3) Data from 24 police forces

The increases in the numbers of casualties and drivers is related to the increase in the number of police forces providing the data. Until all forces provide data, the Department will not have any meaningful trend data.


Answered by:
Sir Robert Goodwill (Conservative)
4 February 2015

Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.