COUNTY NEWS: Scooter user tells foul-mouthed drivers to '˜grow up'

A mobility scooter owner has told drivers and cyclists to '˜grow up' after receiving abuse while out on the road.
Marie Juden, 71, from Tarring said abuse from car drivers when she is on the road has gotten worse. Pictured in Chatsworth Road.Marie Juden, 71, from Tarring said abuse from car drivers when she is on the road has gotten worse. Pictured in Chatsworth Road.
Marie Juden, 71, from Tarring said abuse from car drivers when she is on the road has gotten worse. Pictured in Chatsworth Road.

Marie Juden, from Tarring, has been riding her yellow Colt Executive scooter around Worthing for 20 years.

But in the last 12 months, she said the amount of verbal abuse she received on the road had risen ‘across the board’.

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The 71-year-old said: “I just want to tell them to grow up quite honestly, and pick on somebody else.

Marie Juden, 71, from Tarring said abuse from car drivers when she is on the road has gotten worse. Pictured in Chatsworth Road.Marie Juden, 71, from Tarring said abuse from car drivers when she is on the road has gotten worse. Pictured in Chatsworth Road.
Marie Juden, 71, from Tarring said abuse from car drivers when she is on the road has gotten worse. Pictured in Chatsworth Road.

“I’m not in a buggy because I want to be – I’m in a buggy because I have no flaming choice.

“If you don’t know the rules, go get a Highway Code and read it.”

According to the code, mobility scooters and powered wheelchairs with a top speed of eight miles per hour, such as Marie’s, are roadworthy.

Their owners must obey the same rules as other road users.

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The pensioner said when she rides her scooter in the road, drivers beep their horns and pull out dangerously to get around her.

She said foul-mouthed tirades were also common.

When she was riding down Heene Road recently, a taxi driver called her a four-letter expletive before honking as he overtook her.

She said it was ‘intimidating’ and added: “If I had said something like that, my mother would have leathered me into next week.

“A lot of car drivers need a bar of soap for their mouths.”

According to Marie, there was not ‘a cat in hell’s chance’ she would drive her buggy on the A27 – which is illegal – and she uses the pavement on busy roads, such as over the Broadwater bridge by Morrisons.

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But cylists also hurl abuse at her when she uses the cycle path along Worthing seafront, she claimed.

She also poured scorn on drivers who illegally double park their cars on narrow roads, such as those by the Jacob’s Ladder footbridge in West Worthing, which force scooter users into the road.

A sufferer of asthma and diabetes, a removed disc from Marie’s spine and knee problems mean she relies on the scooter for her independence and her social life.

She said: “It’s living with me, I’m not living with it. If I want to go out, I go out.”

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She pointed out not everyone was rude, saying some drivers were patient with scooter users and that pedestrians and parents with pushchairs were particularly understanding.

She said: “There are some lovely people out there, it’s just spoilt by the idiots.”

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