‘Total ban': State's big move on e-bikes

News.com.au

3 days ago

One state government is mulling over a total ban on e-scooters and e-bikes, as concerns grow over the use of the dangerous and largely unregulated vehicles.
Transport Minister Brent Mickelberg has said the Queensland government is prepared to make some big changes to how e-bikes are regulated amid a current review. It is a move other states could quickly follow.
Mickelberg has indicated his Liberal government might not shy away from a total ban of the bikes amid 'widespread community concern' in regard to the rules and risk of e-bikes, e-scooters and other e-mobility vehicles.
'I'm prepared to look at any solutions that are going to address safety,' Mr Mickelberg told the ABC.
'The reality is they do have benefit in our community, but there's also situations right now where the risk does not justify their use.'
TRAGIC DEATHS
Mickelberg said he understood there was a desire within the community that e-devices needed to be better regulated and that the laws governing their use need to be better thought out.
A Queensland government inquiry into the use of e-bikes was announced in May with a final report due in March next year.
The news of the chance of a total ban on e-bikes comes less than a month after a 14-year-old boy died in an e-bike accident in Sydney early last month.
Mohammed Mahid Younes was killed when he crashed while riding his new e-bike in the southern Sydney suburb of Arncliffe.
The tragic accident was a stark reminder of the dangers of e-bikes.
'I know my son is kind of a statistic at the moment,' Mohammed's mother Joanne Younes told The Saturday Telegraph.
'But if it can teach other children safety and to be aware (that would help). Although my son was doing all the right things at that time, things can happen when you least expect it.'
In October last year, a nine-year old boy died after a car ploughed into his family while they were out riding their e-bikes on the Gold Coast.
And last month, a 79-year-old e-bike rider died after she collided with a car on Bribie Island.
While the dangers of e-bikes to pedestrians are also a major concern, as shown by the manslaughter charges against a 17-year-old in Perth who was charged after allegedly hitting and killing a nurse in the WA capital's north last month.
A NATIONAL EMERGENCY
The prevalence of e-bike injuries have become a national emergency as illustrated by skyrocketing admission statistics from the country's hospitals.
In February, a report revealed that E-bike and e-scooter injuries have risen a whopping 300 per cent at a major Australian children's hospital, as the troubling toll the trendy riders are having on under 18s is revealed.
Injuries at The Children's Hospital at Westmead in Sydney's west skyrocketed on the back of the increasingly widespread use of e-transport by kids, The Daily Telegraph reported.
According to the report, hospitalisations of children at the medical facility due to accidents on e-bikes or e-scooters for children jumped from six in 2023 to 24 last year.
The majority of incidents involved riders hitting stationary cars or being hit by moving vehicles.
'NO RULES, NO REGULATIONS'
Swinburne Professor of Future Urban Mobility Hussein Dia said at the time he wanted to know 'why' kids are using these motorised modes of transport with seemingly no rules or regulations in place.
'The increase from six children hospitalised in 2023 to 24 children hospitalised in 2024 in Western Sydney is alarming,' Mr Dia said.
'In other states where regulations have been put in place around shared e-scooters and e-bikes, it is illegal for children under the age of 16 to be riding them in public areas.'
'These are not toys – with an electric motor they can go very fast. Some of the devices on sale for private use can travel at speeds up to 45 kilometres per hour.
'With commercial schemes, there are regulations around maximum speeds at which they can travel (e.g. 20 km/h), the mandatory use of helmets, and where they can be driven.
Mickelberg said that riders were simply ignoring rules that had been laid out and that the inquiry would follow other avenues of concern including the risk of fire.