IT PROBABLY FAIR TO SAY that not many over-50s ride e-scooters. If they did, they’d probably show more consideration for others by not misusing them, and not dumping them wherever and whenever they step away from them.
Authorities are grappling with what they euphemistically call “compliance issues” – what that actually means is people riding e-scooters while disregarding the rules, riding them without helmets, riding them at illegal speeds and in places they are not allowed. Also of concern is identifying e-scooter riders who break the rules.
It’s not a problem confined to Australia.
The UK’s largest independent road safety charity, IAM RoadSmart, is urging the Government to do much more to drive down the number of death and injuries on Britain’s roads.
This comes in the wake of the Department for Transport’s (DfT) latest findings in: Reported Road casualties Great Britain, annual report: 2021 revealed that there were 1434 casualties involving e-scooters, resulting in 10 people being killed, 421 seriously injured and 1003 slightly injured.
This is in stark contrast to the DfT’s 2020 statistics, which recorded 484 casualties involving e-scooters, including one death, 128 serious injuries and 355 slight injuries. Shockingly, this means there has been a 900 percent increase in deaths in the UK in just 12 months.
Naturally, figures are not available for Australia, but the proliferation of e-scooters means that we have probably seen similar increases in incidents.
Neil Greig, Director of Policy and Research at IAM RoadSmart, commented: “The e-scooter carnage must stop. A tenfold increase in deaths related to e-scooters in just one year is utterly unacceptable and the continued delay in regulating these machines is costing lives and causing misery on our city roads every day.”
“IAM RoadSmart calls on the new Transport Secretary, Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP, to make road safety the number one deliverable for her department in the coming months by introducing the long-awaited Transport Bill to regulate e-scooters for the first time.”
The report also revealed that although there was an 11 percent decrease in casualties in 2021 compared to 2019, overall road casualties have returned to the stagnation trend of the past decade after a sharp decrease in casualties in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Neil added: “The latest crash statistics make for depressing reading and the DfT now needs to show leadership in road safety and publish its long-awaited strategy for England and the Road Policing Review. Once we have a clear government vision for road safety, we can all start working together to deliver it and keep Britain’s roads as safe as they can possibly be.”
Along with other concerned parties, seniordriveraus is lobbying local authorities to do something about regulating e-scooters and e-scooter riders.
Have you been involved in an e-scooter incident? Were you able to identify to perpetrator? Or get compensation if you were injured or property was damaged? If so, we’d love to hear from you.