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Toddler injured by mobility scooter
A COUPLE are calling for a change in the law after their little girl was run down by a pensioner on a mobility scooter.
Two-year-old Madison McNair will be scarred for life and may need plastic surgery after being swept underneath the wheels of an OAP's machine as it careered through a town centre street.
The female pensioner, aged 70, tried to drive off as Madison was taken to hospital with blood running from gashes to her legs, neck and face.
But six passing shoppers managed to detain the woman - who was banging her walking stick on the ground and shouting - by snatching the keys from the ignition, and confiscating them until police reached the scene.
Madison's mum Kerry and dad James thought the scooter driver would end up in court. Instead they were stunned to be told South Yorkshire Police can't take any legal action because mobility scooters are exempt under the Road Traffic Act.
Officers have had to make do instead with giving the pensioner "suitable advice about her future conduct".
Madison's furious parents, who live in Shafton, Barnsley, have been in touch with their MP Jeff Ennis, who is to ask Justice Minister Jack Shaw to close the loophole.
Delivery driver James, 36, said: "Madison could easily have been killed, but the police have told us that because the pensioner didn't intend to hurt anyone no law was actually broken."
Kerry, 34, said the old woman showed no interest in Madison's plight and did not even apologise.
"Madison was in a shocking state but the woman never even said sorry. The scooter crashed into my back before it hit Madison. I saw her go under the four wheels and being dragged down the road.
"It was awful, but the woman just ignored me when I chased after her. I was tugging at the sleeve of her coat pleading with her to stop, but she just kept going.
"It took half a dozen people to pull her off the driving seat. One of them was saying, 'You've got to get off - there's a baby under the scooter', but she didn't seem bothered at all."
A South Yorkshire Police spokeswoman confirmed officers interviewed the pensioner after the accident at Baxtergate in Doncaster, and had given her "suitable advice about her future conduct".
She added: "Mobility scooters are classed as mechanically propelled vehicles rather than motor vehicles, therefore this type of vehicle doesn't fall within road traffic law."
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Weather for Sheffield
Wednesday 23 May 2012
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