PART 3 - SAFETY OF WHEELCHAIRS IN TAXIS

The Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) and The Scottish Office have received many letters from taxi drivers who are concerned that it is not safe to carry wheelchairs in taxis as they may not be able to withstand an impact in the event of an accident.

It is true to say that very few of the wheelchairs currently available in this country have been tested to see what forces they could withstand in accident situations. For this reason, some wheelchair manufacturers cover themselves by saying that the chairs have not been designed for use in vehicles.

However, experience from tests that have been carried out on wheelchairs suggests that the vast majority of chairs will withstand high levels of impact provided that they are correctly positioned in the vehicle and that the chair and the person travelling in it are both secured.

Many thousands of journeys have been undertaken by wheelchair users every day for many years and DETR are unaware of any incident in which a wheelchair has caused a problem. Wheelchair users travel regularly all over the country in community transport, taxis, special school and social services transport and other vehicles.

DETR is currently working with the wheelchair manufacturers to develop a protocol for testing of wheelchairs and some of them have now successfully tested a number of their products and are saying publicly that they are suitable for use in transport. Others are expected to follow suit.