E-SCOOTERS are under the spotlight again this week, after the northern Italian city of Genoa has reported a spate of serious and even fatal accidents since their use was introduced.
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Moto.it has just reported a fatal accident in the Budrio region after colliding with a car while riding one of the electrically powered machines. The 60-year-old struck his head and was rushed to hospital although the victim succumbed to his injuries the day after.
The incident is not isolated though, it’s reported that the ASAPS Scooter Observatory registers an accident involving the devices once every three days. In 2020, the Association of Traffic Police found 125 serious incidents in the nation, accounting for one every three days.
Of those recorded there were one death, 11 injured with a reserved prognosis, and 49 injured with a prognosis of more than 40 days rehabilitation required.
It also found that the main accident was relating to the scooters tipping the rider over forwards, with distraction and mobile phone use while riding and lack of road inexperience also being blamed for some of the incidents.
The report has linked together hotspots in the nation where accidents are highest, and it is no surprise to find that the majority fall within cities where e-scooter ride schemes and sharing services are in action.
With more and more cities across the UK and Europe turning to e-scooters as some kind of future-proof transport hero, we can expect these numbers to tell an all too familiar story in the years to come.
In the UK, the Met Police reported an eight-fold increase in e-scooter crashes between 2018 and 2019, although it also states that with illegal use in the city being high, the true number of unreported incidents is likely to be much higher.
