MONTGOMERY, Ala. (Legal Newsline) – A motorized wheelchair on the street is a “motor vehicle” under state law, the Alabama Supreme Court has ruled.
The issue stems from a lawsuit alleging negligence on the part of an automobile driver who rear-ended a man with cerebal palsy who was turning left to get home after eating at his church. The driver, James Oliver, argued the wheelchair is a motor vehicle and was not equipped with certain safety features like a horn or brake lights.
He made this argument in an effort to hold plaintiff Randall Pruitt at least partly responsible for the 2013 accident.
“It may seem absurd to classify a motorized wheelchair as a ‘motor vehicle’ because, although such devices are capable of traversing roadways, they are not designed to transport persons on roadways,” Justice Brad Mendheim wrote on Jan. 29.
“After all, as Oliver observed in his arguments to the trial court, motor vehicles are required to have several features – such as brakes, horns, rearview mirrors, brake lights, and head lamps – that motorized wheelchairs do not possess.
“But many other vehicles that are not ordinarily used on Alabama’s roadways – such as riding lawn mowers, golf carts, all-terrain vehicles, and go-karts – also lack at least some of the safety features Alabama’s motor-vehicle and traffic code requires motor vehicles to possess, yet the lack of such features does not mean that those vehicles are not ‘motor vehicles’; it simply means such motor vehicles lack certain safety devices our legislature has deemed necessary for their use on Alabama’s roadways.”
The plaintiff had argued another part of state law applied to wheelchairs, but the court pointed out that it seemed to target Segways specifically.
The decision requires the trial court to determine if Pruitt’s violation of safety-feature requirements was the proximate cause of the accident. And it also reinstated a negligence claim against Oliver which will now be determined by a jury.
The four-lane road on which Pruitt was driving does not have sidewalks, shoulders or crosswalks where he was. He needed to use a left-turn lane to get to his apartment.
A witness said the wheelchair was “very visible” because of lights, reflectors and Pruitt’s vest, but Oliver contends his view was blocked by the downhill crest on which the rear-ending occurred.