Mobility Equipment Throttle Design

Mobility Equipment Throttle design

"A Lost Art"

Since most scooters are now made in Asia, most of the design lessons learned from all the injuries in the 80's have been lost.

Here are three examples of the types of safety features you need to consider when looking at throttle design . . .

Snag Guard Throttle Design

Throttle thumb bars are grappling hooks. They should be nested or surrounded so clothing can not snag them. If you look down at the throttle and you see the thumb bar sticking out that means the thumb bar is not shielded and it is easily hit or snagged by clothing.

Here are some FDA MDR's to illustrate the point:

MDR Report - Scenario: "The patient did not shut the scooter off, hit the throttle with their elbow causing the patient to fall off the scooter. Nurse stated patient broke their leg in an area that was weakened by a pre-exiting medical condition and it had to be amputated."

Patient outcome - Amputation.

MDR Report - Scenario: "While removing merchandise from the basket to put it on the counter to her left, her clothing caught on the accelerator paddle on the left. The clothing pulled the paddle back sending the cart out of control.

"In panic, she could not dislodge her clothing and the 155 lb. cart careened forward, knocking a person down and proceeded until it hit another electric cart at about 3,000 FT pounds. She tore muscles and tendons in her back and shoulder, and was hospitalized repeatedly with six weeks of physical therapy."

Patient outcome - Hospitalization

MDR Report - Scenario: "User states that the throttle sits at the edge of the handle bars, and in this latest incident the consumer had left the scooter. The consumer hadn't pulled the key, when she returned to the scooter; consumer's dress caught on the throttle and the consumer was thrown to the floor. Earlier incident - her sleeve caught on throttle. Both times she fell onto a carpeted area."

In each of these reports the user forgot to turn the key off. So when you buy a scooter, make sure the key is in a highly visible and obvious position right in front of you to help remind you to turn it off. We recommend placement right on top of the throttle dashboard because, as they say, "out of sight, out of mind."