Letters | 16 April 2015

The real road menace

Sir: I write in anger after reading Mark Mason’s malicious attack on mobility scooters (‘Hell on wheels’, 11 April).

The motorcar has, since its invention, killed many hundreds of thousands of innocent pedestrians. Meanwhile, whole tracts of our beautiful and productive countryside have been flattened or destroyed to accommodate its traffic. I have been a devoted walker for over 80 years and remember how many favourite walks have been erased or spoiled for the construction of motorways.

Now that I am unable to do more than dodder, I get about on a mobility scooter. I like it even less than the pedestrians I may inconvenience, but my only alternative is a reclusive life indoors.
Jim Morgan

Lyme Regis, Dorset

We need our scooters

Sir: At 94 I do not own a bikini, but for the past three years I have been driving a mobility scooter with relief. It is a godsend to be able to drive down pavements. Pedestrians, however, are curiously unaware of my existence, and as a rule I generally have to slow down behind them while they saunter along merrily. Recently a woman popped up, back turned, onto a pavement without looking, and proceeded to walk on slowly. When I called ‘Look out’, she turned and answered, ‘No, you look out.’ Using the roads is also risky, as cars whizz past despite the priority assumed.

Most people, however, are tolerant. I would be unable to live where I do, at the top of a steep hill, without this welcome aid. I have yet to see anyone driving a mobile scooter without necessity.
Pamela Hill

Radlett, Herts

Drop the pilot

Sir: The Wiki Man seems to have missed the elephant in the cockpit when considering why plane crashes are getting weirder (11 April). The number of fatal accidents caused by pilots has always been more than twice that caused by mechanical failure.