Understanding the Factors Behind Motorised Mobility Device Incidents: Insights to Improve Everyday Road Safety Practice
Motorised mobility devices (MMDs), including mobility scooters and powered wheelchairs, are used by an estimated 500,000 to 800,000 people in the U.K. Despite this considerable user base, they remain largely invisible within mainstream road safety research and policy. While collision and casualty data highlight injuries and fatalities among this group, little is known about the incident types and mechanisms underlying these events, or the environmental, human, and device-related factors that contribute to risk.
This presentation addresses this gap by analysing insurer-recorded incident reports using inductive thematic analysis to identify recurring incident types and underlying mechanisms. The findings reveal consistent incident types across roads, pavements and wider public spaces, indicating that these events are not confined to a single context.
A central pattern concerns collisions with vehicles and other micromobility users in shared spaces. These incidents frequently arise from failures to yield and limitations in situation awareness, shaped by priority conflicts, inconsistent legal expectations, and limited recognition of MMD users within the Highway Code and wider traffic culture.
Access related constraints further increase vulnerability, as the behaviour of others can restrict or displace MMD users from safer routes, forcing them to navigate suboptimal paths or undertake reactive avoidance manoeuvres. Incidents also commonly involve terrain interactions, kerb transitions, and uneven or degraded surfaces, which interact with device based vulnerabilities such as low ground clearance and stabilisation limits, increasing the likelihood of tipping, underside impact or mechanical damage.
This presentation will explore these issues and identify areas for improvement in guidance, recognition, surface maintenance, and regulatory clarity to reduce injury risk and support the goal of eliminating fatalities for this growing and overlooked vulnerable road user group.
Dr Christopher Atkin, Research Fellow & Associate Lecturer, Nottingham Trent University (NTU)
Dr Christopher Atkin is a Research Fellow & Associate Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at Nottingham Trent University (NTU). His research focuses on ageing, cognition, and the development of applied interventions that support independence, safety, and wellbeing.
He currently plays a central role in a Road Safety Trust–funded project examining safety for users of motorised mobility devices (e.g., mobility scooters and power chairs), integrating cognitive and perceptual perspectives with large-scale incident and near-miss data to inform practical safety guidance and policy.
He also contributes to a UKRI–MRC funded project developing and evaluating methods to support older adults’ everyday decision-making. Previously, he worked on a UKRI–ESRC funded project investigating multisensory stimulation as a mechanism to enhance cognition and wellbeing in later life.