When you have limited mobility but still need to travel from one location to another, a wheelchair can be useful. The easy rolling of the wheelchair, whether self-propelled or pushed by a companion will make the journey far easier than it would be if you had to attempt to cover the distance on foot. While there are plenty of times that a wheelchair is ideally suited for your needs there are also occasions when it has disadvantages.
If you place a wheelchair in a vehicle then it must be correctly secured. Otherwise, it will roll around the vehicle and could even tip over injuring the occupant and perhaps causing an accident. Read on for further insight on securing wheelchairs.
Securing a wheelchair
Leaving a wheelchair to roll around inside a vehicle while it is moving isn't an option. You might consider having someone to hold the chair during transit but that isn't safe either. Tying the wheelchair in position with ropes is just as impractical as these options. The best solution is to install wheelchair restraints in your vehicle because they can lock the wheelchair firmly in place throughout the journey. There are several factors that you will need to ensure that you can find the right wheelchair restraints for your situation, so contact companies that sell wheelchair restraints to learn more.
A low-cost solution
If cost is your overriding consideration, then manual tie-down wheelchair restraints are the logical choice. Manual restraints secure the wheelchair, using either a ratchet or a buckle mechanism. To use these wheelchair restraints, you must have someone other than the wheelchair user available to lock the wheelchair into place. The other point which you will want to bear in mind is that these wheelchair restraints will remain in place permanently, so they could be in the way if you need to use the vehicle for non-wheelchair passengers regularly.
Retractable and automatic solutions
Retractable wheelchair restraints are the most commonly used type of wheelchair restraints. The advantage of using retractable restraints is that they self-adjust so you can always be assured of a tight fit and a well-anchored wheelchair. Regardless of the type of wheelchair that you want to transport, these restraints must be secured by the wheelchair user. For complete ease of use, you could opt for an automatic restraint. Once the wheelchair is in the right position, these wheelchair restraints lock into place without any further action from the chair occupant.
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