Need for speed

Two British men have set a new world land speed record for a mobility scooter. During timed runs to meet with official requirements, the heavily modified mobility scooter proved capable of hitting a speed of 172km/h. This tops the previous mobility scooter speed record of 131km/h by some margin. The mobility scooter is however not suitable for road use, despite having working lights and indicators, as it does not possess front brakes. Power comes from a 600cc Suzuki motorcycle engine that has been squeezed
January 14, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
RSSTwo British men have set a new world land speed record for a mobility scooter. During timed runs to meet with official requirements, the heavily modified mobility scooter proved capable of hitting a speed of 172km/h. This tops the previous mobility scooter speed record of 131km/h by some margin. The mobility scooter is however not suitable for road use, despite having working lights and indicators, as it does not possess front brakes. Power comes from a 600cc Suzuki motorcycle engine that has been squeezed into the strengthened go-kart chassis upon which the mobility scooter has been constructed.

Two car occupants in China had a narrow escape when a mixer truck toppled onto their car, crushing it in the process. Despite the car being flattened in the incident, the woman driver and her younger male relative managed to escape relatively unscathed with only minor injuries. Passersby first tried to lever the mixer truck off the crushed car using a tree trunk. When this failed a passing crane was stopped and brought in to tackle the tricky task. After being rescued from the car the occupants were taken to hospital, but medical checks showed that they had escaped serious injury.

Related Content

  • Impact resistance
    February 22, 2012
    A British woman discovered that her sturdy little Toyota Yaris was not quite sturdy enough to cope with an impact from a large boulder. The woman had parked her car by the roadside and returned to find it squashed flat under the weight of the 5tonne lump of rock, which had fallen from a quarry industry vehicle as it drove past.
    Read More
  • Crash climb in Germany while KSI figures fall
    July 4, 2014
    Official data from the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reveals that in 2013, the country had the highest number of crashes since reunification. In all some 2.4 million crashes were reported to police, an increase of 0.5% from the figures recorded for 2012. But while the number of crashes grew, the number of fatalities on German roads fell to 3,339, a drop of 7.3% from 2012. This is the lowest annual road fatality rate since the country commenced compiling official records in 1953. Meanwhile the
    Read More
  • The cost of crashes in the US
    May 25, 2023
    The financial cost of road crashes in the US places a heavy burden
    Read More
  • Men more likely to pass UK driving test than women, says IAM research
    September 19, 2012
    British men are 6.4% more likely than British women to pass their practical driving test, according to road safety charity the IAM. But while young men are more likely to pass their driving test, they are also three times more likely to be killed or seriously injured (KSI) behind the wheel. The IAM findings are a result of analysing pass rates statistics from the Department for Transport (DfT) published in August 2012 for the financial year 2011-2012.
    Read More

Highlighted Content