‘Scooter riders risking their lives on city roads’
AN e-scooter rider believes he is risking his life using the scooters in Bristol. Matthew Smith said he has had a number of incidents with buses and cars on the road that have led to falls and injury.
The 51-year-old said, in the past month alone, he has had two rather unpleasant experiences with motorists on the roads in Bristol. Mr Smith, from Totterdown, said the first incident took place on March 30 where he had an altercation with a bus driver.
Mr Smith told the Post: “A bus came up very quickly and closely to me and beeped his horn when next to me, which made me fall off my scooter.
“I got back on the scooter to pursue the bus and ask why the driver did it and he said that he had seen me use a zebra crossing on a scooter back on Redcliffe Hill and wanted to make a point that it wasn’t allowed – it was a safe way for me to slowly cross a big road. I insisted that he had run me off the road to make that point – which felt premeditated and aggressive - and he just repeated what he said.
“He then went to drive away and I stumbled, at which point he beeped his horn, pointed and laughed, which I found alarming.”
A spokesperson for First West of England said: “We were aware of the incident and investigated it, and the driver is no longer employed by us.”
Mr Smith said the second incident took place at 6.55pm on April
10, on County Street in Totterdown, on the corner of a three-way junction where St Johns Lane meets Wells Road. Mr Smith, who was on the Wells Road at a crossing opposite the Bank restaurant, said: “I went to scoot across the road crossing as I saw no traffic coming and at that point a car came round that
corner coming up Wells Road and through the junction.
“As he saw me cross, he appeared to accelerate and then blew his horn loudly which made me jump, panic and speed up to cross without being hit. I lost control as a result and went crashing into the middle of the road-crossing section, badly damaging my knees.”
Mr Smith was left with bloodied legs after the incident and is fearful that another incident could possibly leave him with far worse injuries in the future.
He added: “As a result of this behaviour, I am having to consider going back to my car or risk, it seems, a life-threatening injury. It is clear that scooters have an image problem in the city and we need to do some work on that. There are bad riders as well as good, but then it’s the same with every vehicle.
“The key thing here is that on a scooter or bike you are exposed flesh and bone, whereas the rest is tonnes of metal. There is no competition in those bad scenarios, we know how it ends and I don’t want to be one of those statistics. We need restricted and dedicated scooter/bike lanes everywhere, not just on some parts of some roads.
“We also need cameras at traffic lights and major junctions. Only then can we start to feel safe again on these vehicles which are there ultimately to help the planet.”