Rascal Mobility is launching a “driver’s education program” for mobility users through its authorized dealers. The program aims to reduce the number of mobility scooter accidents suffered by patients.
Approximately 25,000 mobility-scooter tipping injuries require emergency-room treatment each year, according to accident reports filed with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).Rascal says that factors such as uneven surfaces and negotiating sharp turns at high speeds are common causes for such accidents.
Additionally, Rascal Mobility is introducing a line of Rascal MicroBalance and Rascal Liteway three-wheel scooters that it says are as stable as their four-wheel counterparts due to the manufacturer’s Magnetic Stabilizer Wheel Technology.
“When I reviewed a study of CPSC’s National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, I noticed an alarming frequency of wheelchair related serious injuries many of which I know were caused by people tipping over their three-wheel scooters,” said Michael Flowers, president of Rascal Mobility. “Hospital-emergency departments treat more than 100,000 injuries from scooters, power chairs and manual chairs annually. Most injuries are related to tips and falls, and most result from mobility scooter use. In addition, accidents treated at home or by the family physician are not included in the count.”
Rascals says that standardized lateral stability tests on the Rascal Balance scooter conducted independently under contract by the Human Engineering Research Laboratories (HERL) at the University of Pittsburgh, which specializes in wheelchair safety research, show the Rascal Balance three-wheel scooter is as stable as a Rascal four-wheel scooter, and that it actually has a more “nimble and stable around turns than other three-wheel scooter.”
Rascals says the way the technology adds the stability is via swiveling Magnetic Stabilizer Wheels on each side of the steerable front wheel, which “instantly transform a three wheel scooter into a four-wheel scooter when needed during sharp turns and for use on uneven terrain.”