There is an interesting trick the human brain is prone to play wherein the frequency of some phenomenon is judged to occur by a person is elevated by how easy it is for that person to recall examples of that event happening. The effect is usually called "Availability Heuristic" or some variation of that theme. The result is that if something is particularly memorable (which often means shocking), people who have experienced or witnessed it are inclined to believe it happens more often that it actually does.
That sounds like a fancy way for me to tell you you're imagining things. I don't mean it like that at all. I believe you saw what you say you saw. I've seen similar accidents, and I agree that there are problem ECV drivers. But the reality is that serious injuries caused by bad ECV driving in the parks are incredibly rare considering the millions of people funneling through those parks each year. Even looking at the few injury lawsuits involving ECVs filed in the last few years, almost half of them were filed by ECV operators for injuries they sustained as the result of other people.
As for minor injuries caused by poor ECV driving? They certainly happen. I doubt Disney will ever publish an anonymized action log from their first-aid stations. I did, however, spend almost 4 hours in one a few years back when I had a reaction to the sun and decided to camp out there until it got dark so I could stay for the fireworks. It was an incredibly busy day and I heard probably a hundred people come in. Everything from nausea, to constipation (they keep prune juice in first aid!). Broken fingers, twisted ankles, cuts and scrapes. Not one of the injuries treated by the park's first-aid over the span of 1/3rd the park's opening hours that day were caused by an ECV.
And I know that one guy eavesdropping on the counter at First-Aid half a shift is not conclusive evidence. But it is the sort of experiment one would have to conduct to determine where ECV driver error falls on the list of WDW dangers.
The majority of WDW guests in ECVs are not elderly nor infirmed. There are plenty of day-streams in the parks on
youtube to back me up. Watch an hour or two of people walking the parks and actually look at who's in the ECVs. It's mostly the 'middle aged' to 'younger retirement aged'. Usually it's someone who is ambulatory over short distances but some combination of disability and weight (often a result of disability) makes prolonged walking untenable.
There is a difference between being hit at 4mph by a 300 lbs walking person and 300 lbs of ECV and driver. The force of the impact is the same. But the walking person hits you at shoulder level which will probably launch you into the pavement. The powerchair of the same mass and speed will hit you much lower, possibly causing a sprained or even broken ankle. Neither collision will end well and both should be avoided. Both of these types of accidents are also exceedingly rare. Because human beings, generally speaking, can be trusted to behave themselves.
You are far more likely to be run into in WDW by a person using their legs. That's a fact. Should we then hobble any guest who's big enough to cause injury if they run into someone?
I think this was related to the rental ECV's top speed being limited to the point where it did not have the strength to travel up an incline. Cheap ECVs like those used as rentals, often control speed by controlling the voltage sent to the motor. This means that at slower speeds, the motor also has less horsepower and would struggle to climb an inclined sidewalk or even get through a sandy spot.
Actually, the complaint here is that Disney has limited the ECVs to much slower than a normal walking pace.
Grizzlies can run at 25-30 MPH for over 2 miles. .
