E-scooter safety concerns divides chiefs after death of 12-year-old in Birmingham
Mustafa Nadeem, 12, died when the e-scooter he was riding crashed into a bus in 2022.
E-scooters continue to be mired by safety concerns as chiefs approve a new ‘zero tolerance’ strategy towards all road deaths.
It comes as British company Beryl e-scooters are expected to come in in the West Midlands this month, replacing the Swedish Voi brand that operated from 2020 until March of this year.
Safety concerns have been renewed following the recent inquest into the death of 12-year-old Mustafa Nadeem who died in December 2022 after the e-scooter he was riding collided with a bus in Bordersley Green, Birmingham.
Mustafa’s parents have urged operators to bring in facial-recognition technology to prevent children from using the devices which are meant for 18s and over only.
Speaking at a Transport scrutiny meeting at the West Midlands Combined Authority yesterday, Sandwell Coun Steve Melia (Lab, Great Barr with Yew Tree) said: “Some local members in Sandwell believe that the WMCA has added to the road safety problem on our pavements by reissuing in the last year their licence for the electric scooters.
“We think these are deadly devices and ought to be banned on our roads.”
Coun Melin’s comments came during a discussion around road safety with the WMCA set to commit to a 50% reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured by 2030 (currently the aim is 40% by 2028).
The change in strategy also approves a zero tolerance approach to deaths and serious road collisions termed ‘Vision Zero’ and comes after a spike in serious and fatal collisions involving children, pedestrians, and cyclists.
This is in contrast to figures from 2019-now which show the number of killed and seriously injured casualties in the region has reduced by 16% compared with the 2015-2017 baseline.
City of Wolverhampton Councillor Carol Hyatt (Lab, Merry Hill) asked if the new e-scooters would use ‘geofencing’ – technology that sets boundaries within which the scooters can operate (a feature the Voi e-scooters also had).
Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) executive director Anne Shaw OBE responded: “The pilot scheme that we operate has all of those safety measures in, so the geofencing and restricting speed in certain locations as well.
“As we are entering into a new pilot we are making sure the operator has been quite robust as well.”
Ms Shaw reminded the members that the measures only applied to the e-scooters for hire and TfWM did not have control over the use of privately owned e-scooters.
Chiefs are also waiting for the government to provide e-scooter regulations.
Road Safety Manager Darren Divall said: “They’ve not really given a great deal away about what that will or might not include, but obviously we are aware and are keeping ourselves abreast of all the results of all the trial schemes that have been going ahead so that we can adress them where need be.”