E-scooter deaths triple as calls grow for a crackdown

THE number of deaths from e-scooter accidents has trebled in a year to 12, official figures show, amid soaring illegal use on our roads and pavements.

Eleven of the deaths were e-scooter riders and one was a pedestrian. Crashes rose by 28 per cent to 1,349 in the 12 months to June.

Those involving an e-scooter and no other vehicles totalled 346, while there were also 1,437 injuries compared with 1,033 in the year ending June 2021. Nearly half of injured scooter riders were young men.

It is estimated up to a million e-scooters are on UK roads – the vast majority illegally.

Rented e-scooters are allowed in 31 areas of England where trial schemes are under way. However, it is illegal to ride a privately owned e-scooter anywhere other than on private land.

Many riders use them on public roads and pavements. The soaring use of the scooters and the death and injury toll comes after Channel 4 and YouTube star Emily Hartridge, 35, was killed in 2019 in what was believed to be Britain’s first fatal accident involving the machines.

She was in collision with a lorry in Battersea, south London. E-scooters were banned by Transport for London in 2021 after one caused a fire on a packed Tube.

David Davies, of the Parliamentary Advisory Charity for Transport Safety, told the Daily Telegraph: ‘We’re seeing an increase in casualties because more and more scooters are being bought and used illegally. The Government should absolutely crack down.’