Newslink December 2021

News
Staff left shattered as fleet of disabled driver
assessment cars stolen by thieves
A charity-funded assessment centre that
helps disabled drivers get back behind
the wheel has been hit by a particularly
cruel car theft.
Staff from Wessex DriveAbility in
Southampton were shocked to arrive at
work last month to find that their entire
fleet of specialist modified vehicles had
been stolen.
Wessex Driveability Centre is part of
the Driving Mobility network of
assessment centres, and the theft left
them unable to help disabled drivers
regain their independence.
The Southampton location in Kent
Road is Wessex DriveAbility’s main
assessment centre. The organisation
has outreach locations in Basingstoke,
Salisbury, Ferndown, and the Isle of
Wright. Its team of ADIs, occupational
therapists and administrators provide
fitness-to-drive driving assessments for
elderly and disabled people who selfrefer
or are signposted from the DVLA,
Motability, NHS and police.
This charity-funded team ensure
drivers are safe to continue driving and
provide clinical recommendations
regarding adapted driving controls and
wheelchair accessible vehicles.
All that was shattered, however, on
Monday, November 8 when thieves
broke into the centre by smashing-in the
fire doors, by-passing alarms and
opening safes to access the keys to five
assessment vehicles. The stolen cars are
the entire fleet of specialist vehicles used
for assessment drives and all feature a
number of conspicuous adaptions such
as rooftop wheelchair boxes.
The organisation already has a long
backlog of assessments because of the
pandemic, and this latest setback will
mean even more drivers will not be able
to regain their motoring independence for
some time.
Members of the
Wessex DriveAbility
team outside their
Southampton
headquarters before
the theft of their
adapted car fleet
Rachel Odell, Wessex DriveAbility
Centre manager, said: “Discovering
our fleet of cars had been taken was an
awful shock to all of us. We are so
confused with how and why these
modified cars would be stolen as they
are specially designed and modified for
drivers with restricted mobility.
“We are a non-profit charity which is
part of a larger national charity
called Driving Mobility and are really
worried we might not be able to replace
certain custom-made controls we had
fitted in vehicles.
“Now we have no specialist vehicles
for assessing, drivers desperate to regain
their freedom will potentially have to wait
a considerate length of time before we
can see them. This couldn’t have come
at a worse possible time with the huge
demand on our service right now.
“My team and I are absolutely appalled
by the selfish nature of this act which
will impact so many disabled people and
their families”
Laura Holley, driving assessor and ADI,
concludes: “We might be wrong but
it appears that the criminals were
scoping our property for some time as
they knew exactly where to access keys
and at the right time. Plus, they must
have had some knowledge of adapted
driving as our cars were fitted with
modified steering controls, such as
push-pull hand levers for acceleration
and braking – these did not seem to
hinder them when they drove them
away,” she added.
“Our cars were unique and specialist
so not easy to sell on. We hope the
offenders are apprehended
quickly for this awful crime. In the
meantime, we are now 100 per cent
focused on limiting the impact on our
services as much as possible and
replacing our fleet as best we can. When
you are so passionate about helping
disabled people, it is heart-breaking for
something like this to happen. As we are
a charity, funds and time are always
limited so this is a massive blow. If
anybody can help us in anyway, we’d be
so grateful.”
The centre staff have been left
questioning why criminals would take
such specialist, niche vehicles. No staff
were on site or injured during the breakin.
Oddly, the centre’s standard vehicles
were left untouched, which adds further
confusion to the motive of this crime.
Smart phone zombies are menace to motorists
Nearly a third of Brits have confessed to
being glued to their phone when crossing
the road, rising to 80 per cent of 18- to
24-year-olds, a study has revealed.
The survey by Fiat of 2,000 UK drivers
and smartphone users found drivers had
to take evasive action such as sounding
their horn (24 per cent), braking heavily
(23 per cent) and even swerving around
(16 per cent) pedestrians who had
walked blindly across the road while on
their phones.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, distracted
phone user incidents were higher in the
capital than the rest of the nation. More
than a third of Londoners had to beep at
a pedestrian (36 per cent) and brake
heavily (37 per cent) to avoid hitting
someone on their phone.
In addition, 28 per cent had to swerve
a distracted pedestrian and alarmingly
24% of drivers had hit a pedestrian on
their phone, although these pedestrians
avoided any serious injury.
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NEWSLINK n DECEMBER 2021