Jan 26
A British man has been banned from using his wheelchair on the streets after authorities classified the thing as a tank. Jim Starr, a one-time landscaper, has been wheelchair-bound since 1999 due to back and joint pain and various neurological conditions. This Christmas, a friend gave him a $24,000 electric wheelchair as a gift, allowing him to, among other things, go to the beach with his children.
Unfortunately, he’s not allowed to take the thing on the streets because the chair, invented by a US Army veteran after serving time in the Gulf, is technically a tank. According to British law, wheelchairs must be narrower than 33.4 inches and lighter than 275 pounds. Starr’s chair measures 45 inches and weighs a staggering 485 pounds.
“It is a fantastic machine and can take me anywhere I want to go,” Starr told AOL. “It has no limits. It is ridiculous that I should have found a chair that could help me do all that … only for the authorities to turn around and say that if I used it on the roads, I would be doing something illegal.”
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