Page 1893 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 22 June 2021
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In 2021, there have been 588 e-scooter accidents in New York City, with a total of 538 people injured in those accidents and at least three pedestrian deaths.
From Britain’s LBC website 12 hours ago:
A man is in a critical condition in hospital with a serious head injury after falling off a hired e-scooter.
The 55-year-old was travelling through Newcastle city centre with a group of … 12 people when the incident occurred.
From the Liverpool Echo in the UK two weeks ago:
There are calls for an ‘urgent review’ of a pilot scheme of e-scooters which is currently running in Liverpool.
From The Times in London 10 days ago:
War is being waged on e-scooters in Russia after they were involved in a series of accidents, including one that put a dancer from the celebrated Mariinsky Ballet into a coma.
I quote Mr Pettersson himself from ABC radio this morning or yesterday. He said, “I think for many Canberra residents, witnessing people using scooters inappropriately is quite clearly alarming”—quite clearly alarming!—“but I do not think that precludes us from expanding and making the service available to more people.” Mr Pettersson has described the safety breaches and the recklessness as quite clearly alarming, but he says, “What the hell; let’s just roll it out further because it is such a good idea.” Mr Pettersson is right; it is a good idea. But we have seen in the last fortnight what happens if you roll out what looks like a great idea without ironing out the kinks.
I know that the government are towards the back end of a review of this scheme. They have pretty much already announced that this is going to be extended to Mitchell and Gungahlin. I do not think that the review as it was announced is robust enough. I want to see something that absolutely focuses on accident statistics. I want to know how many accidents involved intoxicated riders. I want to know how many accidents involved more than one passenger on a scooter. I want to know how many injuries resulted from no helmets being worn.
I know that Mr Steel has already said that this review is being done, but I want firm assurances that this review will have a focus on collisions and will include accident information. I do not want a PR puff job here. That is what I fear. I am not the only one who fears that. I quote Phil Creaser from letters to the editor in the Canberra Times from three weeks ago:
If ACT Transport and the government are serious about surveying people about the impact of e-scooters, perhaps they should also survey residents of areas where e-scooters infest the footpaths, much like the current plague of mice. What we need is a study of the impact of the scooters with proper terms of reference including the number of accidents they cause.
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