Last year Paris banned e-scooters following rising injuries and three fatalities.  For current trials in the City of Port Phillip not to be killed at birth, the Council and the e-scooter operators need to do more given the known risks and mounting hard evidence.

For example, where are the public signs to help inform scooters users and members of the public that its illegal to use a scooter on a pavement?  Scooters are subject to the same basic rules as a motorised vehicle, but there are no traffic signals.  Bizarre!!!   

Does that make the Council negligent and open to hefty legal claims?  

In addition, why do the scooters, full of digital capability, not detect when a helmet is not being warn and disable the scooter?

A resident recently mowed down by a scooter had this to say, “At the end of October 2023, I was standing at a junction on Fitzroy St, waiting for the lights to change so I could cross the road when an e-scooter came flying down on the footpath and clipped me from behind obviously hoping to make the lights before they changed.  With the shock I jumped up, missed the curb and somehow landed smack down on my face.  Luckily, a lovely couple beside me helped me up.  At this stage
 my nose was bumping blood.  The young guy who was on the e-scooter looked at me and obviously saw the state of my face and  got back up on his scooter as quickly as he could and legged it.  Not even the word 'sorry' from him”.
 
The following day I was referred for a scan a week later once swelling went down. To my shock it was discovered that I had a minor fracture in my nose.  At the end of the day, the e-scooter rider got away scot free.  

As for me I was left with rather hefty medical bills and a break in my nose that put me into hibernation for a good 3 weeks afterwards due to the swelling and bruising my face received from the injury. 

Another resident stated, “As I work for a local Medical Practice, I am privy to many incidences related to both the riding of and pedestrian related injuries. It also concerns me how many of the Albert Park College kids are riding these scooters to commute to and from school and to the various campuses on busy main roads without helmets or any other protective clothing. It’s a death waiting to happen”.

A trial is just that.  With evidence now gathered, it is time to stop the trial, reflect, learn from, adjust.  Starting with fresh traffic signs and helmet detecting capability. Without these commonsense yet essential changes any trial is not a true trial and denies scooters the opportunity to put their best wheel forward.