Wheelchair ban for 'drink-driver'

[Mrs Fish]

ananova said:

Wheelchair ban for 'drink-driver' A disabled man had his electric wheelchair confiscated after being caught more than four times over the drink drive limit. Sven Mietke, 26, from Loebau in Germany, was fined £1,300 and banned from using his electric wheelchair for three months. Police stopped Mietke as he was on his way to buy beer from a petrol station in the early hours of the morning. They said he was going down the road from side-to-side and when breathalysed found he had 228 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. In Germany, the legal limit is 50 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. In court Mietke admitted: "I drink 10 to 12 bottles of beer a day." He will now have to use a regular wheelchair until the ban is over.

[andy mac]

there was a case like that in this country, but the chap go off as the motorised wheelchair is not considered a motorised vehicle, or something along those lines.

[Einion Yrth]

ananova said:

He will now have to use a regular wheelchair until the ban is over.

And wheeling himself plastered along the road as opposed to letting an electric motor do it is safer how exactly?

[PatHeald]

On a slightly different note....

I was walking through the town centre the other day and saw a chap driving one of those motorised buggies when it ground to a halt, presumably with a flat battery.

Having failed to get the thing going again, he promptly climbed off it and started to push it manfully down the street...

[jas xjr]

slightly o/t too but i have seen recently more and more of these motorised buggies being driven on the road. tonight at around 5:30 i saw one in amongst traffic waiting to pull out onto a roundabout. its pretty busy there and ok he had front and rear lights on but in a collision with anything he is going to come off second best. i know they are a boon for mobility etc, no problem with that, but not on the road .