FOUR decades ago the Adver ran a story about some of the most fearless drivers ever to turn an ignition key.

They weren’t veterans of Le Mans, the Nurburgring or Indianapolis, yet ran a daily risk of being mangled, burned or blown up.

Their vehicles were so dangerous that every example would eventually be gathered up on the orders of a horrified goverment and crushed: the invalid carriage.

First appearing in primitive form after the war, the pale blue one-seater three-wheelers were introduced mainly to give maimed veterans mobility and independence.

Leased through the NHS, their use was expanded to other people with disabilities.

The flimsy and light cars soon developed a reputation for engine fires, instability and fragility. There was also a tendency to be blown off the road by crosswinds or the slipstream of larger vehicles.

It wasn’t until the 1970s, though, that people with disabilities began demanding their rights in earnest – and the right not to have to drive something nicknamed ‘the mobile coffin’ was high on the agenda.

In April of 1974, for example, the Adver ran a story headlined: “The needless danger of being handicapped.”

The piece used some language that’s outdated now, but the message was loud and clear: “For sheer guts, I should like to pin a medal on Ruby Wilson. Hers is the day-in-day-out enduring kind of courage.

“She is the crippled little lady of Milverton Court, Swindon, who spends her days making dolls for charity.

“About a month ago she had a crash in her invalid three-wheeler car, her only means of getting about. When the crash came, she was driving on a muddy road near Brinkworth.

“The car skidded and rolled over three times before the seat shifted and the door burst open. Ruby was thrown out and knocked out.”

Ruby, we revealed, had become disabled 20 years earlier, when she damaged her spine. She now vowed to get back on the road – but hoped her next invalid carriage would be one of the rarer and more stable four-wheelers.

Another driver was 20-year-old accounts worker Dilys Hamsley of Eldene: “Last year, a wheel went spinning off when it touched a kerb.

“Dilys’s seatbelt saved her from serious injury, though she was badly bruised.”

We also spoke to Pinehurst man Stan Jesson, secretary of the North Wilts Group of the Disabled Drivers’ Association, who described a crash in which a carriage was blown into a ditch at night.

Had the young man inside not managed to escape his seatbelt, he would probably have been hanging dead from it when help finally came the next morning.

County councillor Gwen Rogers called for the carriages to be removed from the roads and replaced by converted conventional cars.

She added: “It is horrible that the disabled, who have so much to put up with in their own handicaps, should have this added strain, and the constant possibility of further disablement.”

As things turned out, it would be another 29 years before she got her wish. The carriages were recalled and crushed in 2003, although by that time only a couple of hundred remained on the roads.

They had long since been supplanted by Motability, which was launched in 1978 and uses standard cars with tailored conversions.

A few examples of the three-wheelers remain in museums and the hands of collectors.

If you have memories of driving one, please get in touch.