The number of traffic accidents involving users of electric wheelchairs more than doubled to 207 in 2001 from 89 in 1996, the year in which the National Police Agency started collecting such data, the NPA said Thursday.
The NPA said 191 people suffered injuries and 11 people died in accidents of this kind last year. In 1996, 88 people were injured and two were killed.
An educational program for users of electric wheelchairs is necessary to curb the number of accidents, the NPA said. Stores that sell electric wheelchairs provide buyers with an explanation of how they should be used, although most stores take less than one hour to do so, according to the agency.
About 330,000 electric wheelchairs were shipped between 1984 and 2001, according to a wheelchair sales group.