Harold Scruby: Deadly e-scooters should be outlawed on WA footpaths
A father of two, Thanh Phan, was recently killed — allegedly mowed down by a drunk tourist on a hired e-scooter. There will likely be no insurance, no compensation for his devastated family. The City of Perth responded instantly, suspending all hire schemes. The Police Commissioner said what every decent West Australian is thinking: these lethal machines do not belong on footpaths.
Politicians love making laws but despise enforcing them. You won't hear 'road safety' or 'enforcement' pass their lips — tough enforcement doesn't win votes. Yet instead of demanding action, WA's Road Safety Commissioner Adrian Warner advocates 'balance,' 'education,' 'engagement,' 'regulation,' and 'compliance,' while talking up the supposed benefits of e-scooters. He claims police are doing an 'appropriate' job of enforcement. If this carnage is 'appropriate,' what does failure look like?
These machines are already implicated in nine deaths since WA legalised e-rideables in 2021 — two people killed in the past month alone. And still, Warner insists the answer is more education.
The Commission's own review, released in May, is damning: stakeholders 'almost without exception' said enforcement is abysmally insufficient. Speeding. Helmet non-compliance. Reckless riding. Illegal high-speed e-rideables sold openly. The public overwhelmingly wants more enforcement, not less. Penalties in WA remain pathetically low.
Meanwhile, WA's emergency departments are overwhelmed by e-scooter injuries. Professor Dieter Weber, head of trauma at Royal Perth Hospital, says the number of preventable cases is 'enormous' with people suffering life-altering injuries every single day, funded by taxpayers.
'We see patients who don't survive,' he said. 'Others end up with brain injuries, spinal trauma, or permanent disability.'
Among the 81 serious cases studied in WA, 40 per cent weren't wearing helmets, and 35 per cent were under the influence of drugs or alcohol. It's not just riders being hurt — a growing number of pedestrians are ending up in hospital, hit by these motorised missiles.
The impact on vulnerable pedestrians is devastating. Vision Australia's survey found that 90 per cent of people who are blind or have low vision don't feel safe walking on footpaths due to e-rideables.
And the next wave of trauma is already here: illegally modified fatboy e-bikes, capable of up to 120 kmh, are tearing through footpaths in the Eastern States. WA is next.
At least Parliament has called an inquiry. But it must produce action, not another round of glossy reports.
Enough funerals. Enough devastation.
The WA Government must start by creating a formal road user hierarchy and putting the walking class first and banning anything with an electric motor from our footpaths.
Harold Scruby is the chief executive of the Pedestrian Council of Australia
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