Concern is growing in China about illegally adapted mobility scooters and their careless drivers.

According to a report in the Qilu Evening News on Wednesday, such a vehicle struck a Porsche in Tai'an, Shandong Province on March 4. The young Porsche driver calmed the elderly scooter driver and let him off without compensation.

The seemingly mundane story stirred up intense debate on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent to Twitter. While a few netizens praised the young driver, most people raised concerns about the danger these scooters are causing on the road.

As one comments, “Why should we encourage illegal driving and tolerate these scooters just because the driver is a senior?”

Three- or four-wheeled mobility scooters were originally developed from electric wheelchairs to assist the handicapped and the elderly. However, they are increasingly being adapted to travel at high speeds (over 50 km/h in some cases). Mobility scooters do not require a license, insurance or registration plate, so these adapted versions have proven an attractive alternative to regular scooters. Chinese cities are full of people of all ages illegally driving them on the road.

There are no national regulations clearly defining and administrating mobility scooters, police and other authorities can do nothing more than warning the drivers and the scooter retailers responsible for the modifications. 

From 2011 to 2013, 757 accidents were reported involving mobility scooters in Beijing, alone. Because these scooters are popular among the elderly picking up grandchildren from school, these accidents often ended up hurting the most vulnerable groups.

In China, people aged over 70 cannot obtain a driver’s license. Many seniors choose mobility scooters as an alternative, ignoring the danger.

The problems are not unique to China, of course. In the UK, a 2014 report in The Telegraph warned that thousands of elderly and disabled people who drove large mobility scooters could unwittingly be breaking the law by driving on the road.

Authorities in China have started to take action. On March 1, Nanjing Public Security Bureau banned mobility scooters from driving on the road and retailers from modifying the maximum speed of these vehicles.