Ministers are being asked to prohibit the sale of electric scooters before it is legal to drive them on public roads.
Simon Foster, Police and Crime Commissar for the West Midlands has sent Grant Shapps a warning about more deaths and severe injuries and urged him to take action.
The Mail received his letter. He calls the contraptions “a threat” and claims that they are becoming more of a drain on the police’s resources.
The law prohibits private-owned escooters from riding on public roads.
Grant Shapps, Transport Secretary (pictured), has been asked to prohibit the sale of electric scooters to private individuals until they are legal to use on roads.
They are being sold by retailers in record numbers, with very few questions.
This means that police will have to pull over hundreds of riders in order to clarify the law, and possibly arrest them for operating a motor car without an insurance policy or license.
Foster stated that the West Midlands Police Force has recorded over 400 incidents in the past few years.
Many involved youth thugs riding unsafely such as on the streets or using e scooters to commit crime.
Shakur Amoy Pineck, 20 years old, died from serious head injuries following a collision between the electric scooter he was riding and a Volkswagen Golf at Wolverhampton.
Simon Foster (pictured), Police and Crime Commissar for the West Midlands has written to Transport Secretary warning about more deaths and serious injuries and urging him not to crack down
E-scooters that are part of government-backed trials (which users usually pay per minute to rent) can be legally used. They require licence checks as well as other safety measures to make sure they’re legal. They are restricted to speeds of 15.5 mph, and only allowed on roads and cycle lanes in approximately 50 towns and cities across the country.
The Ministers are still waiting to make a decision about whether or not private-owned e-scooters will be legalized on roads. This delay is expected to continue until the summer of 2022.
However, Foster stated that their sale must be stopped until the new regulation is in place.
He wrote to Mr Shapps, stating that ‘apparently the legislation and regulatory system around private e-scooters for sale and use is not fit for purpose.
“Privately owned e-scooters must be licensed and regulated in the future and proper safety and health precautions taken.
“Until this point we urge you to ban private e-scooters, so that we don’t have further deaths or injuries.”
You will also see that private escooters may be legally bought and sold, but are still a danger on roads and pavements as well as in parks.
“They pose a danger to pedestrians, drivers and officers as well as posing a significant health and safety risk for their owners.
“It’s disappointing that so many are being sold to people who don’t have a place to ride them.