Wigan grandmother injured and 'full of anxiety' after falling over e-scooter

Kath and Ken Millett, from Ashton, visited Oxford on August 9 as a stopover on a coach trip to Kings Charles' gardens, at Highgrove House in Tetbury, Gloucestershire.

But 81-year-old Mrs Millett fell over an e-scooter which had been left in the street in a public hire scheme.

Her daughter Joanne Millett said: “She used the public toilets and when she came out, due to the e-scooter being carelessly parked, she fell over. She cut her eye and did damage to her leg.

"As she was on the floor, luckily some firemen from the Oxfordshire service were driving past and managed to do some first aid, before she went to the local hospital.”

Mrs Millett had a brain scan and needed stitches for the wound near her eye, while her leg was also injured.

While she is recovering from the injuries, she is still feeling the impact of the incident.

Miss Millett said: “She is full of anxiety at the minute and won’t even go out of the door now. Prior to this, even though she is 81, she is so fit and had a better social life than me. It was weekends away with the girls and afternoon tea.

"I’m hoping that in the future she does get over it and gets back to have normal social life.”

Because of the effect of the fall, Miss Millett wanted to speak out about the incident and raise awareness of the dangers of e-scooters not being parked properly.

While there is not an e-scooter hire scheme in Wigan, they are available elsewhere, including in Manchester and Liverpool.

"I don’t want anyone else to go through this,” she said.

She says the e-scooter, which was on Oxford’s Magdalen Street East, was in an upright position in the designated area but “wasn’t parked correctly”.

Mrs Millett, who has two children and four grandchildren, tripped over the e-scooter and another went down with her as she fell, causing the injury to her face.

The Milletts traced the firefighters who helped after the fall to thank them and praised coach firm David Ogden Holidays for their support.

A spokesman for Oxfordshire County Council said: “The e-scooter trial in Oxford requires riders to park in designated bays that are either marked on the pavement or are provided as racks. We would like to remind people using the public hire e-scooters that it is very important they return them to the designated bays correctly and neatly after using them, to prevent injury.”

“The operator Voi makes daily maintenance trips around the city to look after the public hire e-scooters including ensuring that if one is placed outside of a parking bay it is returned properly. If the e-scooters are not returned to a bay, Voi can take action against the rider.”

A Voi spokesperson said: “We are sorry to hear about Ms Millett’s mother’s accident. We are in direct contact with Ms Millett about it and are investigating what happened.

“We ask our riders to park considerately in designated parking bays, without blocking the pavement. Our teams regularly check parking bays to make sure our vehicles are neatly parked.”