Road safety concerns: ‘Scooters are turning paths into motorways’

The head of the Dáil spending watchdog has called for greater Garda enforcement of the new regulations put in place to police the use of e-scooters.

Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley’s intervention comes as two teenagers travelling on a scooter were killed in a late-night collision with a bus in Waterford this week.

The exact cause of the tragedy is under investigation, and Mr Stanley stressed his comments relate to a wider problem surrounding the growing use of e-vehicles on our roads.

In May, Transport Minister Eamon Ryan announced ‘the commencement of the Road Traffic and Roads Act 2023 for e-scooters and e-bikes/ e-mopeds’.

The Government also launched a public information campaign outlining how scooters and e-vehicles can be safely used on our roads.

Under the new legislation, people over the age of 16 are allowed to use scooters in cycle and bus lanes, but not on footpaths or in pedestrianised zones. Scooter users are also prohibited from carrying passengers or goods.

But according to Mr Stanley – who has been raising safety concerns about e-scooters for months – there has been widespread non-compliance with the laws. And he claimed pedestrian walkways in some cities and towns have become ‘a variation of the Wild West’.

The Laois-Offaly TD told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘The gardaí have to start enforcing those powers. We need to get these scooters and e-bikes off the footpaths because pedestrians and others are being injured.’

‘These scooters do not travel at 10kph; some can do 40, 45 or 50kph. Most can do 30kph no problem.’

Mr Stanley, who chairs the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), added: ‘We need more than announcements. The legislation actually needs to be implemented… Footpaths have become like motorways.’

Aside from this week’s double tragedy, latest Garda figures for the period between January 1, 2023, and January 28 of this year show there have been other confirmed e-scooter-related fatalities.

During the same period, a total of 222 accidents involving scooters have been reported to gardaí, of which 54 resulted in serious or fatal injury.

In an indication of the growing scale of the problem, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris told a recent PAC meeting that gardaí would have to ‘tool up’ to deal with the rising number of incidents involving electric vehicles.

He said: ‘It is an element around overall roads policing enforcement. There have been serious incidents, up to and including vehicle incidents tragically, with people on electric scooters.’

‘So it is an element [of roads policing] and we in effect have to tool ourselves up in terms of electric vehicles, which in effect means we can follow and stop them.’

However, Mr Stanley this weekend noted he’d be following up with the commissioner on his commitment, to say: ‘You have the tools, now get on with the job.’ He added: ‘Why can the approximately 10,000 or 11,000 gardaí who are deployed in community policing and traffic units, for example, not do something about it now when they see somebody using an e-scooter on a footpath?’

‘Currently it is not being done. Could a circular be sent out by the commissioner to so at least we could get them off footpaths?’

‘I do not belong to the lock them up and throw away the key brigade. Some people use e-scooters to get to work; I ask that action be taken to get scooters off footpaths.’

‘A circular should go out to every Garda division asking that they enforce the law around the use of e-scooters on footpaths, especially where there are school kids.’ 

The two teenagers who died in the double e-scooter tragedy in Waterford have been named locally as Gilbert Collins, 15, and Abuzwa Idris, 17.

Gilbert was pronounced dead at the scene of the collision on the R680 Cork Road, while Abuzwa died at University Hospital Waterford later from his injuries.

Waterford Mayor Jason Murphy, who is also on the board of St Paul’s school which Gilbert attended, said the city was devastated by the tragedy.

‘They were coming from a 24-hour gym we have here in Waterford; they were into their fitness. Popular lovely lads, chatty. Staff at their schools and classmates loved them,’ he said.

Prayers for Gilbert will be held at Tom Hennessy’s Funeral Home in Waterford at 12pm on Tuesday, to be followed by his burial at Kilbarry Cemetery.

Abuzwa’s funeral details have not yet been announced. ‘Scooters are turning paths into motorways’ Calls for greater enforcement of new e-vehicle regulations by gardaí grow following tragic late-night collision Mr Stanley offered his sympathies to the teenagers’ families, saying: ‘The families in Waterford experienced an awful tragedy and everyone is with them in their time of need.’

‘Gardaí must actively enforce their powers when it comes to scooters and e-vehicles. They have the powers; actions and a strategy must be enforced.’