In the UK, the malls are awash with electric mobility machines. Who's liable if there's a crash?

Question

In our streets and malls there are a growing number of electric mobility machines for people of varying disability and lazyness. Problem is that they also have varying levels of control over these things and given their considerable mass and in many cases considerable turns of speed they are an accident waiting to happen. I've seen people use them as battering rams to barge their way through busy places. Given that they don't seem to be regulated or insured there seems to be no recourse if you're ever injured by one of these devices. A story in my local newspaper told of one such incident where the victim contacted the police and was told that this was not a matter for them. Surely this is some kind of assult (no matter of the cause) -I can't help feeling that if this were a cyclist there'd be police involved. Why are these things allowed without insurance, etc when things like Segways (what's the difference?) are not? -and how do you persue the matter if you're injured?

Answer 1

the driver - in uk if they have house insurance they will

have public liability.

Answer 2

They do my head in they crash into you and then look at you like it's your fault and wait for you to say sorry and when you don't they call you rotten ,i was driving home the other night and one was on the road coming at me and expected me to move when i slowed down for traffic  they should be made to pay insurance because if one hits my car they pay for the damage

Answer 3

The police are only interested in traffic on a 'Public Road'.

I suggest the owners of the Mall might be liable.

Answer 4

What a great question! Unfortunately I don't have the answer! I would guess that you would need to have them charged with aggravated assault because the machine could be seen as a weapon!