Michael's daughter died while riding an e-scooter. He's calling for better regulation

SBS Australia

2 days ago

The topic of e-scooters is a difficult one for Michael Seculovic. Earlier this month, he marked what would have been his daughter Ava's 15th birthday. She died last year after being hit by a car while riding her e-scooter across a busy road in Perth. In her dad's mind, Ava will always remain that 13-year-old girl on the precipice of taking on the world. She had recently started at a new high school, which Seculovic was chuffed about, as it was the same school he had attended.
"She was a bright, beautiful girl," he tells SBS News.
Michael Seculovic's daughter Ava was 13 years old when she died from severe head injuries sustained in an accident on her e-scooter. Source: Supplied / Michael Seculovic "She was very friendly; it didn't matter who it was, when anyone came up to her and said 'hello, how are you?' she always replied with 'good, thank you. How are you?' "She was just beautiful." Ava had received her scooter as a Christmas present just a few months before the accident. Seculovic says he had nagged her and her friends to wear helmets many times, as required by state law in Western Australia, but it was often a struggle. "It wasn't from a lack of trying, I had went and purchased another helmet, as she had said that she didn't like the one she had," he says.
"But also, no one else was wearing a helmet, and like many girls, they are worried about their hair."
Tragically, Ava wasn't wearing one at the time of the accident.
Seculovic has spent the past year reflecting on the regulations around e-scooters. He admits he wasn't fully aware of the legalities before his daughter's death.
I was just going about everyday life, that was not really ever in front of me to know about. For young people, e-rideables, such as e-scooters and e-bikes, represent an affordable and accessible means of transport — they are significantly cheaper than a car and can be used without a licence. Seculovic says he felt it offered his daughter some much-needed independence. "It was her second year of high school, and she just wanted to have that sort of independence teenagers want," he says.
But as the devices have become more and more popular in Australia, so has debate over how to regulate them.
Are e-bikes and e-scooters safe? Parliamentary inquiries into e-rideables are taking place in WA and Queensland, following a rise in related accidents. Both will consider the benefits of the devices against issues regarding safety, regulation, enforcement and penalties. The NSW government announced this week it is considering a temporary ban on the devices on public transport, pending community feedback, following two incidents in NSW and Victoria earlier this year, which involved e-rideable batteries catching fire. Deputy director of Monash University's Accident Research Centre (ARC), Professor Jennie Oxley, says incident rates have risen as the number of e-rideable users has grown.
"The rates of injuries and deaths are increasing, and a big part of that is exposure [in traffic and public spaces], because these e-rideables are becoming popular, of course we're going to see increased numbers of injuries," she says.
Comparable state-based statistics on e-scooter-related injuries are not readily available. However, the ARC collects data on emergency department presentations and hospital admissions related to e-mobility devices, which Oxley says mirrors the situation across Australia. In Victoria, between July 2017 and June 2023, there were 1,680 emergency department presentations related to e-scooter injuries.
During the same period, e-scooter injury rates increased from 0.3 to 14.9 per 100,000 people, says Oxley, adding that the rate would likely have increased with the growth of e-scooter use over the past two years.
The Victorian data did not specifically break down deaths related solely to e-scooters; instead, it listed 14 deaths as a result of all e-mobility devices between 2016 and 2020, with half of these related to e-bikes, while the rest related to other self-balancing devices, including e-scooters. WA Police confirmed it had recorded one death related to e-scooters in 2023 and three in 2024. In a submission to the inquiry into e-mobility safety in Queensland, the Australian Centre for Health Law Research said e-scooter incidents had resulted in at least eight deaths in Queensland in 2024. "Between January 2021 and December 2024, 4,902 people presented to 31 Queensland participating emergency departments with injuries from e-scooter incidents, resulting in eight deaths in 2024 alone," it reads.
"These figures likely underestimate the true toll, as not all Queensland hospitals contribute data, and not all injured individuals seek treatment."
As more people use e-scooters, the incidents related to riding them have increased. Source: AAP / Luka Coch The submission noted that common injuries include fractures, dislocations and head trauma. Seculovic's daughter Ava suffered serious head injuries as a result of her accident in March 2024, which she later succumbed to.
While laws in WA ban those under 16 from riding e-scooters on roads in Australia, it is not uncommon to see children in their early teens out and about in the suburbs of Perth on e-scooters.
Growing popularity of e-rideables Despite the risks, experts say e-rideables are here to stay. A 2023 report by cycling advocacy group WeRide Australia found that 3.6 million Australians had used an e-scooter in 2022 and that per capita usage was highest in WA and the ACT.
The increasing affordability of e-scooters in recent years has also fuelled growth in the number of Australians using them.
While it is illegal to travel on an e-scooter with more than one person, it has become common practice to do so in some parts of Australia. Source: Getty / Steve Waters While some high-end models may set you back around $5,000, a new e-scooter can cost as little as $500.
Oxley says while e-rideables are largely used by people commuting to and from work or study, gig-economy workers, such as food and mail delivery drivers, also rely heavily on them.
Around one in five Australians used an e-scooter in 2022. Source: SBS News Estimates compiled by University of Sydney professor of transport management Stephen Greaves indicate that Australians own about 400,000 personal e-scooters and mobility devices. This is in addition to the thousands of e-mobility devices operating via share-ride schemes, which have been implemented in every capital city and across more than 25 local government areas. Greaves says they are a "genuine alternative to motorised transport". "E-mobility devices, including scooters, open up the possibility for many of those trips that are maybe 2-5 kilometres, where you think, 'why are people driving cars for such distances?'" he says. Australian Electric Vehicle Association president Chris Jones says the boom in electric personal mobility is transformative and should be supported.
"These are some of the most accessible and affordable electric vehicles in the world, and they take up a fraction of the space of a car," he says.
We should be encouraging their uptake with sensible regulation. A submission to the Queensland inquiry from Brisbane West Bicycle User Group said that Queensland and the Brisbane City Council local government area are "failing to capitalise on the congestion-busting benefits of micromobility, and particularly the increased accessibility" afforded by e-mobility options. It pointed out that in Brisbane, 56 per cent of all trips across all modes of transport between 2021 and 2024 were less than 5km in distance and that 75 per cent of trips under 5km were taken by car.
The group asked the inquiry to consider the benefits of e-mobility devices and their potential to replace the "second or third family car", which would "have significant environmental benefits, both in terms of day-to-day emissions and pollution, but also reduced demand for road space and parking..."
Inconsistent regulation For the benefits of e-rideables to be fully realised, experts say better regulation needs to be enforced. Laws vary state by state and are overdue for an update, says Greaves.
When e-scooters first entered the Australian market around 20 years ago, they fell into grey regulatory territory, he explains, as their integration into transport systems and roads had not been planned for.
"The origins of these rules came originally from AustRoads [a national agency representing state transport departments] ... They were talking about kids' scooters and skateboards and all those sorts of things," Greaves says. "They classified them as recreational devices: the terminology was a 'wheeled recreational device' and it was then up to each state to figure out how they were going to manage that." Greaves says the variation between states has implications for whether devices can be used on roads or footpaths, age limits and registration requirements.
"For example, in NSW, we're not sure where scooters belong — some people consider them a kid's toy, others think of them as more of a moped. But, of course, they are not roadworthy as a motorcycle, so are illegal."
While the NSW and Northern Territory governments have implemented laws that prohibit using personal e-scooters on public roads and footpaths, most other states permit their use under certain circumstances. A driver's licence is not needed to ride an e-scooter in jurisdictions where they are permitted in public areas, but riders often need to be above a certain age.
In WA and Victoria, riders must be at least 16 years of age to use an e-scooter in public spaces.
Queensland allows those aged 12-15 to ride them as long as they are accompanied by an adult, while the ACT does not stipulate a minimum age; however, those under 12 must be accompanied by an adult. Helmets are generally required by law for public use, and certain activities, such as riding with more than one person or with a mobile phone in one hand, are not allowed. There are also variations in enforceable speed limits. Riders in WA can travel on footpaths as long as they do not exceed 10km/h, while in Tasmania, it is 15km/h. It is illegal to ride an e-scooter on a footpath in Victoria.
In some states, the maximum speed for e-scooters in public areas is 20km/h; elsewhere, it is capped at 25km/h.
Riding context and speed Greaves argues that regulation needs to be "context dependent" and take into account riding locations. "In the inner city of Sydney, we have a decent bike network, and we have relatively low usage of those bike lanes. They should be allowed and that's what people expressed when we surveyed on this," he says. "I think they're alright on local roads, where we are moving to the 40km/h default speed limits. I don't think they should be on main roads.
"Outside of the CBD, I think they should be allowed on footpaths. You go out into the suburbs and you might see two people walking on a footpath, [so] you've got this perfect infrastructure for e-scooters; let's use it for e-scooters and make it a shared path."
Transport management professor Stephen Greaves says the local context needs to be considered when it comes to e-scooter regulations. Source: Supplied He says local governments should be engaged to help determine safe and appropriate contexts for e-rideables — but also speeds. "Obviously, the state tries to set blanket rules around everything, but at the end of the day, the local jurisdiction needs to tweak those rules depending on the situation." In March, Queensland Police warned consumers to be aware that some e-scooters being sold in Queensland exceeded the legal speed limits, which put them in a different category to personal mobility devices. Greaves says while imposing limitations on the speed of e-scooters might help to ensure those sold on the market comply with legal limits, he is aware that some e-scooter owners in Australia are making alterations to increase the speed of their devices.
"It's very easy to override that," he says.
LISTEN TO He adds that implementing very low speed limits for e-scooters could take away their "intrinsic appeal" in helping people get from A to B faster than it would take to walk. It may also affect device operation. "If you get below about 10 km/h it's actually quite hard to control it, it gets wobbly. There is a sort of sweet spot which is about 15km /h."
But Jennie Oxley from Monash points out that is the increased speed of e-scooters over walking as well as the slower interactions with traffic that add to the risk of injury.
Compliance of e-mobility devices One of the recommendations to come from a 2024 report from Monash University's ARC on injuries associated with e-scooters, e-bikes and other e-mobility devices was to "increase police enforcement" in an effort to deter "noncompliant riding behaviours". SBS News contacted police departments in each Australian state and territory to obtain recent data on e-ridable-related infringements; however, only WA and the ACT provided them. Raw numbers in the nation's capital reflect similar patterns to those in WA. WA officers recorded 303 infringements in regard to e-mobility devices between January 2024 and 7 October 2024 (when responsibility of collection of data moved to the Department of Transport) and a total of 510 infringements in 2023.
About 85 per cent of those were related to helmets, and about 5 per cent were in relation to speeding.
Laws around the use of e-scooters and other e-rideables differ from state to state. Source: Getty / BJP7images A WA Police spokesperson told SBS News: "As with any vehicle, speed, drug and alcohol use and a lack of helmet use are contributing factors to the causes of serious injury or death involving ERDs [e-rideable devices]. "While infringements are an appropriate deterrent, they are only issued when the irresponsible or reckless rider is caught at that moment in time. The most effective way to deter irresponsible, dangerous and reckless operation of ERDs is to seize and destroy the vehicles." In March, Queensland Police made a public appeal for people to take personal mobility device laws seriously, noting that between November 2022 and December 2024, more than 2,700 infringements were issued to riders for illegal road use.
While e-bikes and e-motorbikes are categorised differently from e-scooters, there have been calls to mandate their registration and to legalise their use on roads.
Greaves says research has shown community support for some sort of registration, insurance and licensing of e-mobility devices.
"There are a number of considerations to take into account, but such measures could potentially encourage more responsible ownership and riding," he says.
'It really sucks' Seculovic remembers refusing to wear a helmet when riding his bike as a child, but strongly encourages anyone using an e-scooter to wear one. He says parents with teens in particular face a challenge around e-scooter use. "If you don't let them have one, do you then run the risk that they will then jump on the back of someone else's anyway?" he says.
Despite his personal grief over his daughter's death, Seculovic says banning scooters outright is not realistic.
Look at all the road accidents, you can't just ban cars, can you? When a workmate recently expressed feeling conflicted about whether to allow their son to get an e-scooter, his only advice was: "Go take him down to Wanneroo Road [northern Perth], and see Ava's cross." "That's the end result, which could happen.
"It really sucks, it's the worst thing in the world, but it's reality, and that's a hard thing."