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A picture of a beaming female rider on a wide road strewn with autumn leaves promoted the £299 e-scooter on Amazon last week, described as “your best commuting or outdoor travel companion”.
It is one of several models of the popular e-scooters to be sold in the run-up to Christmas by the online giant and other major retailers, including Halfords, Argos and Currys. There’s just one catch: it’s illegal to ride privately owned e-scooters on public roads in the UK.
Police have warned they will confiscate privately owned e-scooters on public roads as they are being used in around 30 trials across England. Riders have been told by police that their impounded vehicles have been crushed, cut up by electric saws or put into long-term storage.
Tom McNeil, Assistant Police and Crime Commissioner for the West Midlands, said: “It is irresponsible that retailers are selling these e-scooters, which they know cannot be used on public roads. They should be aware that most customers do not have a large amount of private land on which they are operating an e-scooter.
“Many people are confused about the rules. I’ve been out with police officers and seen people parked on privately owned e-scooters and they didn’t realize they weren’t allowed to ride them.”
McNeil is calling for a ban on the sale of e-scooters until the government decides on regulations for their wider use. He has written to Mark Harper, the transport secretary, highlighting the “danger and nuisance” of privately owned e-scooters and the need for effective regulation.
The global e-scooter market is worth more than £15bn annually. The fastest e-scooters can travel at speeds in excess of 50mph, but most models sold in the UK have a top speed of 15mph to 25mph.
While major online retailers provide customers with written warnings about illegal use of e-scooters, they are not always upfront. Sometimes warnings aren’t even included. An e-scooter promoted on Amazon last week as a “commuter companion” warned that it should not be used during thunderstorms but failed to specify that it would be illegal to use it on British roads.
Sarah Gatton, of the National Federation of the Blind of the UK, said: “It’s time to pull the plug on e-scooters, and the government needs to stop retailers selling them. The public will never be safe when it can be used on public highways.”
Officials at the Department for Transport (DfT) believe that e-scooters can provide a faster and cleaner way to travel to ease the burden on the transport system. The government announced plans to trial rental e-scooters in March 2020 and there are now around 30 areas in England with e-scooter trials. It was announced earlier this year that the trial could be extended to May 2024.
The DFT has said it recognizes the popularity of e-scooters, and its proposed transport bill aims to create a new regulatory framework that can be used to legalize their wider use.
But the trial is controversial, with concerns about risks to users and pedestrians. The most recent figures published last month showed that there were 1,437 fatalities in collisions involving e-scooters by June 2022, up from 1,033 the previous year. In the year ending June 2021, 12 people were killed in collisions involving e-scooters, compared to four.
Last week it was reported that a woman who injured her leg after hitting a pothole in Barnet, north London, is suing the council for £30,000 for failing to maintain the road. The council says the claimant, Giovanna Drago, 22, should not be entitled to any compensation because she was on an illegal vehicle.
A spokesman for the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) said: “We are concerned that the more illegal e-scooters are used on our roads, the more likely they are to be involved in collisions. However, when compared to other forms of transportation and overall damage on the road, the collision risk for e-scooters is currently very low.
“Police officers will continue to take all necessary and proportionate action against those who may be tempted to use e-scooters illegally or dangerously, in line with the force’s overall approach to road safety and harm reduction.”
The NPCC said police encouraged retailers to provide “clear and relevant information at the point of sale”.
An Amazon spokesperson said: “We take the security of our customers extremely seriously and we continually review our controls to ensure that the correct product information is displayed. We have policies that make it clear to selling partners not to encourage the potentially illegal use of these products by customers.” It added that the e-scooter advertised as a “commuter companion” had been removed from its website last week.
A Halfords spokesman said: “UK law currently states that privately owned electric scooters must only be used on private land with the owner’s consent. We make this clear at all stages of the online transaction, on our price tickets and in our stores. As a responsible retailer, we strongly advise our customers to comply with the law. We believe, however, that the government is right to focus on developing regulations that will safely allow widespread private use of e-scooters aligned with the regulations for bikes and e-bikes.”
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