The Road Safety Trust has provided funding to The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) to assess private e-scooter safety and understand casualty data in the UK.
The project will investigate the extent of under-reporting of e-scooter casualties and ways in which it could be improved, consider the DfT evaluation report of the e-scooter trial rental schemes and respond to the Government’s proposed Transport Bill.
The funding for the new project follows on from a grant in 2020 for work to investigate the safety of private e-scooters and provided recommendations to address safety concerns.
“E-scooters have appeared in large numbers on UK roads in the past two to three years,” said PACTS Executive Director David Davies. “Most are being used illegally.
“There has been a dearth of information on safety, which PACTS tried to fill.
“During 2021 we published monthly updates on casualties involving e-scooters. PACTS research was helpful to the police and Department for Transport which eventually recorded 1,438 casualties, including 10 deaths. PACTS recorded 13 deaths in the same period.
“The Government has announced that it will prioritise e-scooter legalisation. We believe there is still much more to contribute to the safety of e-scooter regulation, and to the wider issue of casualty reporting for vulnerable road users.”
The Road Safety Trust said the additional funding aimed to help inform Government legislation and ensure that both the riders of e-scooters and those around them remain safe.
