Six people, including one primary-school-aged boy in Brisbane, were hospitalised from the Gold Coast to Townsville overnight after accidents involving e-scooters or e-bikes.
In seven hours, from 7.30pm on Friday to early Saturday morning, paramedics were called to six crashes, as well as an e-scooter fire in Kawana in which no-one was injured.
The primary-school-aged boy was taken to the Queensland Children’s Hospital with a leg injury after an “e-scooter and pedestrian incident” on South Brisbane’s Grey Street just before 10pm.
On the Gold Coast, a teenage boy was hospitalised in a stable condition with leg injuries after falling from an e-bike at Helensvale, while another suffered head injuries after a scooter fall at Coomera.
In three other e-scooter accidents three women in their 20s, 30s and 40s suffered minor injuries – one of them facial – in Townsville, Rockhampton and Hervey Bay.
Hire e-scooters first arrived on Brisbane streets in late 2018, with the popularity of both shared and private devices – along with enforcement and injuries – surging in the years since.
The e-bike deaths of two boys in November added to pressure on the Crisafulli government to take action over the number of injuries and deaths across the state.
Premier David Crisafulli has promised to act but not 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 – held its last block of public hearings in December.
The government had 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.
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Matt Dennien is a reporter at Brisbane Times covering state politics and the public service. He has previously worked for newspapers in Tasmania and Brisbane community radio station 4ZZZ. Contact him securely on Signal @mattdennien.15Connect via email.
