SCOOTER IDIOTS

ANOTHER year, another end-of-school season of scooter hooning by immature elements within the ranks of schoolies who should not be allowed anywhere near a motorised vehicle.

Kids flying along footpaths on electric machines that are silent, or playing the fool as they roar about on petrol-powered, fume-belching mopeds are a hazard that has been a problem for far too long.

Each year frustrated traders in Surfers Paradise plead for action.

Each year frustrated police crack down on rowdy riders.

Each year MPs or city councillors call for changes to the law so that silent electric scooters are categorised as powered road vehicles and not as bicycles.

Footpaths in a busy tourism area should be a pedestrian sanctuary and not shared with electric scooters or mopeds. Hiring the scooters should require more than simply producing ID, being over 17 and not drunk.

It’s a hackneyed argument but we’ll trot it out again: will it take a death for the lawmakers to act?