Skip to main content

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

  • Elephant impact
    March 27, 2014
    British holidaymarkers were lucky to avoid being killed when an elephant unexpectedly attacked their car. The pair were visiting the Kruger National Park in South Africa when their VW Polo car was first rammed and then flipped onto its roof by the enraged male elephant. One of the elephant’s tusks pierced the door of the car, seriously injuring the woman passenger and she was taken to hospital after the attack. She recovered from the injury however and was later able to leave after treatment.
  • Stop in the name of the law
    June 26, 2012
    In Vietnam a traffic policeman proved his dedication to duty when a driver in Hanoi refused to stop. The policeman flagged down a coach for a document check, but the driver refused to show his papers and instead, headed off at speed. The diligent policeman leapt onto the front of the coach and clung on to the bumper and windscreen wipers as the vehicle reached speeds of 50km/h. Video footage taken by a passenger in another vehicle shows the policeman clinging on while shouting to onlookers to call for polic
  • Together again
    July 6, 2012
    A Brazilian woman was killed in a road accident, by her dead husband's coffin. The incident happened on the way to the man's funeral, a day after he had died from a heart attack at a dance. The hearse the woman was travelling in was hit from the rear by a fast moving Alfa Romeo and the coffin slid forward in the crash, breaking her neck and killing her instantly. The woman's son and the hearse driver suffered only minor injuries in the accident, while the driver of the Alfa Romeo also escaped serious injury
  • Road safety move for young drivers
    April 11, 2024
    A new road safety focus for young drivers will save lives