One man has died at the scene of a crash between two e-mobility devices on Wednesday night, with another suffering serious injuries.
An e-scooter and electric skateboard collided about 7pm in Urangan, a suburb of Hervey Bay, about 300 kilometres north of Brisbane.
The e-scooter rider, a 39-year-old Hervey Bay man, died at the scene of the accident.
The 30-year-old rider of the electric skateboard suffered serious head and facial injuries.
He was taken by paramedics to Hervey Bay Hospital in a potentially life-threatening condition.
The two riders had been travelling in opposite directions along a section of the Boat Harbour Drive bike corridor, between Ann Street and Robert Street.
Police urged anyone who might have witnessed the collision or who might have footage useful for the investigation to come forward.
E-mobility laws were introduced at the end of June, bringing in a spate of restrictions for riders and narrowing the scope of riding legality in Queensland.
Restrictions include new speed limits, topping out at 12km/h on footpaths, as well as expanded powers for police conducting random breath tests and seizing devices – including allowing officers to seize unattended e-bikes and e-scooters.
Laws requiring riders to have a licence and be supervised if they are younger than 18 would come into effect in August.
Over the first week of the new laws, police seized nine devices each day, although Assistant Commissioner Rhys Wildman told media this week it would take at least 28 days to return devices deemed compliant under normal circumstances.
However, Wildman said testing processed were “still being worked through”, and hinted they might not be finalised until February.
From February, e-bikes must display a compliance sticker certifying they meet the European standard EN15194.
Wildman said many seizures therefore focused “around the size of the devices themselves”.
“There’s wattage and other parts which we already know, through simple observations and measurements, that they’re illegal,” he said.
On Monday, Wildman said more than 10 devices had been seized while unattended, and the overall number of e-scooters and e-bikes taken by police had grown past 100.
Electric skateboards, while classified in Queensland as personal mobility devices, do not have an international standard, although there are legislated requirements centring on the size of the board and wheels.
Riders off all personal mobility devices are legally obliged to wear helmets across the state.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
