My Driving Experience – Paul Chadwick
I started learning to drive at the age of 17 and after 7 lessons passed my test. Freedom. After three cars and nearly 14 years of happy motoring things were starting to get more difficult with transferring in and out of the car, so I looked into getting my first WAV.
I went to several Motability shows to see what vehicles were available and then I went for an assessment at Steering Development to determine what adaptations I would need. It was confirmed that I would need a six way adjustable seat, zero effort power steering, an electric handbrake plus a tail lift and remote control back doors.
After a great deal of searching I came across a five year old transit which was owned by another user at The NMC. It already had a tail lift fitted and was converted for rear passenger travel which was prefect! It then went to Lewis Reed to have the conversions completed. This was part funded by Motability as part of the Used Vehicle Scheme.
As a result of this purchase, things were so much easier for me. It was great to be able to transfer to the driver’s seat whilst without getting wet and not having to rely on someone to put my wheelchair in and out of the boot. It gave me freedom to go out and about and that’s just what I did. I was able to travel to work, drive to Oulton Park to watch car and bike racing as well as driving to Scotland to stay with my sister.
This vehicle gave me another 9 years of happy motoring but then transferring was becoming difficult and it seemed to take me a long time. Also I was also finding it increasingly difficult to turn the steering. I thought it was going to be a simple upgrade of what I had but after another assessment from Motability things hit rock bottom. I was told that it would not be safe for me to continue driving as I was, and that major changes would have to be made if I wanted to continue driving.
This came as a massive shock with the real possibility that I might not be able to drive again. However
we pushed on and then completed a Motability application. It was agreed that they would part fund a new vehicle and I would have to fund the remainder.
We concentrated on trying to find a suitable wheelchair for me to drive from. This wasn’t easy as I needed a chair low enough to be able to see out of the windscreen. I eventually chose the Storm 4 which I purchased with money that I had saved.
I had another visit from Motability to look at suitable vehicles and their controls. They brought a VW Caddy, a Mercedes Sprinter and a VW Caravelle. The Caddy was good but unfortunately I could not get low enough to see out of the windscreen. The Sprinter was ideal but I could not get it on the back yard as it was too big. So I decided to opt for the Caravelle. We tried several different types of hand controls which all felt alien to me and I started to feel that I wouldn’t be able to do it.
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