By Matt Dennien
Thirteen people have been hospitalised after a spate of e-scooter and e-bike crashes across Queensland on Friday night and Saturday morning – with a 14th life-threatening accident reported on Sunday – ahead of fresh public hearings into the vehicles’ safety and enforcement.
Paramedics were called to 11 separate incidents, from Biloela to Palm Beach, between 6pm on Friday and 4.30am on Saturday – most in the south-east and all but two involving e-scooters.
In the worst accident, a teenage boy suffered significant foot injuries on the Gold Coast after an “e-scooter and vehicle incident” about 6pm, paramedics said.
Since their introduction in Brisbane in 2018, the popularity of e-scooters and bikes has surged – along with injuries. Credit: Matt Dennien
Then in Logan, a man in his 30s suffered what were described as significant leg injuries after an e-scooter fall just after 7pm. Both were taken to hospital in a stable condition.
Eleven other people – two teenage girls, a primary school boy, and a number of men and women aged from their 20s to 40s – were also hospitalised after separate incidents.
On Sunday afternoon, police reported a 33-year-old woman was taken to hospital in a life-threatening condition after an e-scooter crash at Aroona on the Sunshine Coast about 12.30pm.
Hire e-scooters first arrived on Brisbane streets in late 2018, with the popularity of shared and private devices – along with enforcement and injuries – surging in the years since.
The separate e-bike deaths of two boys last month added to pressure on the Crisafulli government to take action to address the number of injuries and deaths across the state.
While Premier David Crisafulli has promised he will act, he has said this will not happen before a parliamentary inquiry delivers its report by the end of March.
That inquiry – considering the vehicles’ benefits, but also safety issues, enforcement difficulties, and laws around importing high-powered variations – will resume hearings next week.
Top police, transport department officials, Gold Coast school leaders, and stakeholder groups are set to give evidence over three days.
The government has put the onus for the vehicles’ safety back on parents ahead of Christmas, particularly urging families not to buy their children illegal, high-powered models.
But key groups, including the RACQ and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, have urged police to ramp up enforcement of existing laws to push illegal electric bikes and scooters off the streets.
Police previously told the inquiry they were unable to chase down those riding dangerously or against the law because any pursuit could endanger pedestrians.
By far the most common fines handed to e-scooter riders across the state are for failing to wear a helmet.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
Most Viewed in National
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
