A WOMAN aged 89 was left badly shaken up after a speeding cyclist smashed into her mobility scooter on Southend seafront.

Zoe Wright was crossing the seafront cycle path near Lifstan Way, Thorpe Bay, when a cyclist who was going too fast to stop smashed into her scooter and ended up in her lap.

Mrs Wright, whose mobility scooter was damaged in the crash, says cyclists use the fourmile cycle path from Shoebury to Chalkwell like a race track and fears a child could be killed in a collision.

She said: “I was just crossing the cycle path when a cyclist cam hurtling towardsme. He put his brakes on, but he couldn’t stop. He was out of control and he landed in my lap.

“I looked left and right, but they put their head down and use it like a track.”

Mrs Wright, of Lifstan Way, crossed Eastern Esplanade at the zebra crossing, which has flashing beacons, before entering the cycle path, so the cyclist should have been aware of pedestrian traffic.

She was almost across the cycle path and the cyclist, who was in his twenties, should have been able to ride around her, but Mrs Wright said he was out of control when he spotted her.

She escaped uninjured, but the right mud guard of her mobility scooter was smashed.

She added: “There is no speed limit along there and these young blokes put their head down and don’t know how fast they are going.

“At some point a young kid or someone will get killed.

“It was very frightening. I was very shaken.”

Martin Terry, Southend independent councillor for Thorpe ward and responsible for transport, said the authority had evidence some cyclists used the path for time trials.

He said: “It’s a real problem.

"One of the issues around cycling, along with cycling on the pavements, is the inappropriate speed of cyclists. We had evidence a lot of people were doing speed trials on the seafront and riding at great speeds. We will stamp on it.”