Woman is first Briton convicted of drink-driving on an e-scooter
She jumped lights when 3 times over limit
A WOMAN has become the first person in Britain to be convicted of drink-driving on an electric scooter after a night out downing rum shots.
Kyah Jordan, 20, had never ridden one of the vehicles before she was caught jumping a red light while almost three times the alcohol limit.
After ignoring the stop signal, she nearly crashed into an unmarked police armed response car.
In the landmark case, Jordan was banned from the road for two years by magistrates.
She had been spotted by the officers riding late at night on the e-scooter through Newport, Isle of Wight, last month.
The court was told that Jordan had been drinking double shots of rum with friends before they got on the e- scooters outside a nearby supermarket.
Prosecutor Liz Miller said officers in the police car first saw Jordan at 10.30pm as she headed in their direction.
They saw her jump the red light and then realised she was heading straight at them before she ‘narrowly missed a head-on collision’.
Police later said that ‘the driver would have been injured without doubt’ if there had been a crash.
One of the officers shouted at her to stop but Jordan did not respond so they chased her on foot, eventually catching up with her and getting her to come to a halt.
Mrs Miller said she smelt of drink and failed a roadside breath test. Jordan was then taken to a police station, where she was tested and found to have 97 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 microgrammes.
Henry Farley, defending, said his client spontaneously decided to pick up an e-scooter from a drop-off point near a Morrisons store. She admitted being naive to have ridden the e-scooter, something she had ‘ never done before’. Mr Farley said Jordan didn’t recall a near-miss and insisted that she had been travelling so slowly that she had not posed a threat to anybody.
As the e-scooter was limited to a speed of 12.5mph, she had only put herself or anyone else in danger of a ‘grazed knee’, he claimed.
‘I don’t know if you are endangerwas ing the lives and limbs of the populace,’ said Mr Farley.
However, chairman of the bench Peter Redding said ‘the law is very clear on drink-driving’ as he imposed the two-year ban.
At Isle of Wight Magistrates’ Court in Newport, he added that an e-scooter counted as a vehicle in the same way as more conventional road transport.
Jordan, of New Milton, Hampshire, also given a 12-month community order and ordered to carry out 40 hours of unpaid work.
At the time of the incident, Isle of Wight Police posted on social media: ‘ This evening, the rider of the e- scooter pictured below, found herself under arrest on suspicion of drink-driving.
‘ The rider was subsequently charged and will appear in court in due course.
‘The use of e-scooters whilst intoxicated will not be tolerated.’
It is illegal in the UK to ride a privately owned e-scooter on a public road, cycle lane or pavement.
They can be ridden on private land with the landowner’s permission.
Beryl e-scooters were made available for rental in a 12-month trial launched only last month on the Isle of Wight.
An initial 25 have been introduced with plans for another 125. They can be hired through a phone app, which requests driving licence details before releasing the vehicle. It was originally restricted to Newport but has since expanded to Ryde.
‘Driver would have been injured’