Aged Care Insite Issue 92 | December 2015 - January 2016 | Page 20

practical living

Roll on – safely

W
Mobility
scooters can
safely restore
freedom
for many
older users
with proper
care and
regulation.
Jennie Oxley
interviewed by
Dallas Bastian

ith frequent media reports on mobility
scooter accidents and deaths, and an
ageing population, experts are taking a
closer look at road safety.
Earlier this year, The Blue Badge Mobility Scooter
Safety and Insurance Survey, from mobility insurance
specialist Blue Badge Insurance revealed that 30 per
cent of scooter users in Victoria had been involved in an
accident at some point and 50 per cent were involved
in a near accident at least once a year.
Blue Badge said there were 120,000 mobility scooter
users in Australia, with numbers growing 9 per cent
annually and expected to reach 280,000 in 10 years.
The deputy director of Curtin-Monash Accident
Research Centre, associate professor Jennie Oxley,
suggested that older road users remain in the car for as
long as possible, but added that at some point in many
older people’s lives they might have to consider reducing
or stopping driving. She said motorised mobility scooters
could start to replace shorter car trips.
“They provide a great mobility option for people,”
Oxley said. “It’s more than just transport. It’s mobility,
it’s health, it’s active living, it’s healthy ageing.”
Oxley co-authored a conference paper in 2013
in which the researchers highlighted emergency
department presentations for injuries related to
motorised mobility scooters in Victoria, tracing them
back to 2004 or 2005.

20 agedcareinsite.com.au

The data revealed an increase in injuries amongst
mobility scooter users up until the year prior to the
paper’s release. The report also highlighted that there
are significant issues related to the integration of the
scooters in the existing transport network and the
safety of users.
Oxley said: “Maybe government needs to be
looking at the regulation of the design, but also
regulations in terms of who really should be using
mobility scooters.”
Here, Oxley discusses what still needs to be don H˜Y