A PENSIONER has called for tighter controls over people using hired mobility scooters in town centres following a freak accident in an Ipswich store.Bill Murton, of Sproughton Road, is claiming that Ipswich council should be liable for damage done in the bizarre incident and an injury to his wife's leg that happened as a result.
A PENSIONER has called for tighter controls over people using hired mobility scooters in town centres following a freak accident in an Ipswich store.
Bill Murton, of Sproughton Road, is claiming that Ipswich council should be liable for damage done in the bizarre incident and an injury to his wife's leg that happened as a result.
The accident happened in the restaurant of British Home Stores when an elderly man who was struggling with the controls of a Shopmobility scooter ploughed into the table they were eating at.
According to Mr Murton, 64, the driver of the scooter was having difficulty using the vehicle and is calling for checks to be carried by Shopmobility to ensure drivers are fully aware of how to use them.
He described how the machine had suddenly lurched into life hurtling toward them and colliding with tables and chairs.
Mr Murton said: “We were sitting at a fixed bench and somehow direct contact with us was avoided but it gathered the table and chairs where my wife and I were eating and it was eventually brought to a halt.”
Food and drinks were scattered across the floor and Mr Murton's 61-year-old wife Janet had her leg injured by a table scraping against her.
Mr Murton said: “I want to make sure the people renting these things know what they are doing.
“This could have done myself and my wife some very nasty injuries.”
Mr Murton has sent a dry-cleaning bill for a jacket dirtied in the incident to the council and said his wife suffered pain in her leg for a number of days following the injury.
Ipswich Borough Council has refused to comment on the incident and a spokeswoman said the matter is still being investigated.
News of the freak accident comes just days after a pensioner was mown down by a mobility scooter which then driven away.
Derek Hunwicks, 77, was knocked over by a reversing scooter as he was walking in Grimwade Street, Ipswich, on November 8.
n. Have you been involved in a scrape with a mobility scooter? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk
Weblink:
www.ipswich.gov.uk
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