Mobility scooter crash leaves pedestrian with serious injuries, prompting police appeal

Police have appealed for witnesses after an 80-year-old man was hit by a mobility scooter, leaving him seriously injured.

Scotland Yard said the pedestrian suffered leg injuries, including fractures to both ankles, after the vehicle crashed into him in Harold Wood, east London.

The man was walking along Station Road at 9.30am on Sunday when he was knocked down.

Officers spoke to the man in his 70s who had been riding the scooter but did not arrest him.

The most recent figures from the Department of Transport show there were 260 accidents involving mobility scooters in 2016. Sixty-one of those were classed as “serious” and 14 were fatal.

The Metropolitan Police launched an investigation this week after CCTV footage showed a man ramming into and knocking over two elderly women at a bus stop in Welling, south-east London.

Aaron Ali, 40, from Thamesmead, was later arrested and charged with two counts of actual bodily harm and two count of criminal damage.

Last year, a 92-year-old man was pulled over by police as he drove his mobility scooter on a busy motorway in Scotland.

In 2016, a “very confused” 92-year-old was rescued by police after he was spotted riding a scooter along a 70mph dual carriageway near Crawley, West Sussex.

Later that year, a burglary suspect made his escape on an electric buggy after raiding a pharmacy in Dagenham, Essex.

Additional reporting by agencies