Well, it has a couple of contraptions which make it stay stopped when you've managed to get it stopped anyway, but there's nothing to stop it if it runs away - you just have to hang on and hope for the best!

At least my electric one has its own weight to slow it when you turn the power off, but it doesn't have proper brakes, either!

In the last two years of dealings with the NHS, I have never seen so many incidences of plain bad design. I'm sure money could be saved for the NHS just by employing someone to test equipment to ensure that it works properly and works well with other pieces of equipment. Unlike one wheelchair I was in temporarily, which had to have a bit smashed off it so that it would fit into an ambulance!

Snorri

Oh Snorri you want to get Nero onto that...that can be his next project.

Hope you are ok...no more ice cream for you!!

I can never get ice cream when I'm at home (no van), so while I have access.............

Snorri
(lik lik)

Nothing has appalled me so much as reading this whole post.
"hang on and hope for the best" should be shown to every wheelchair manufacturer - in fact I think they should be made to experience it and by crikey I bet you'll soon have a brake system designed in.

It's ridiculous that a chair which can cost into four figures can be short of something as basic as a brake. And that's just the manual/self-propelled ones.

The price tag on my power model was £5500, and it has no brakes either (fortunately, I was gifted the electric one)!!! The other week, I nearly had an identical accident with it - it was lucky that Dogsey member Helen T was there to sort it out!

Snorri

Oh Snorri, what have you been up to now!!!! I remember your last incident in a wheelchair getting across that road, and I thought back then that the darn thing could have tipped over backwards, and now it has. Road rash at your age indeed!!! My mum's chair couldn't tip over backwards unless I let it (hmmmmmm, No!) I think the bigger wheels are at the back, so that just couldn't happen. I just can't believe these haven't been properly tested against all eventualities such as this one, afterall, the very last person who needs to fall over backwards is a person sitting in a wheelchair for God's sakes!!! Anyway, I hope the damage is minimal, and I hope the ice cream was well worth the inconvenience and pain!

Snorri,

was just telling my hubby about this, and how awful you have no brakes.
he said if you know a handy mechanic, and the wheelchair is yours to do with as you please, you could get them to rig up a bicycle set of brakes on it. (he's been checking wheelchair sites and isn't impressed with the parking brake)
In fact, he's so unimpressed he said if you were nearer he'd rig you up a braking system himself!

Unfortunately, the NHS retains ownership of the manual chair. I'm not sure about the electric one: I think I'm solely responsible for it, but I don't know for sure. It isn't so bad as its own mass keeps it more stable.

Snorri

Do you have to take the manual one n every so often for a "service" ( laughable, but couldn't think of a better word)
because I am thinking if you don't, and it only has to be returned in original condition should you need a new one, that maybe a bolt-on braking system could be an idea.
One that a handy mechanic could take off before it needs returning.

Do you know such a person, anyway?

So sorry to hear your head took a bump. When Mrs S comes back, she'll be giving you a thick ear.


Hope your head feels better soon Lots of Kisses xxxxxxxxxx