An air ambulance was called to the Ampere Way tram stop yesterday afternoon after a collision between a tram and an e-scooter rider.
The rider was taken to hospital with a serious head injury after the incident, which the police say they are not treating as suspicious.
Tram services between Therapia Lane and Wandle Park were suspended as a result of the incident which occurred by the stop closest to Ikea and Valley Retail Park.
A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We sent two ambulance crews, two paramedics in fast response cars, an incident response officer and members of our Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) to the scene. We also dispatched London’s Air Ambulance.
“The first paramedic arrived in less than five minutes.
“We treated one patient for a head injury and took him to a major trauma centre, by road, as a priority. We also treated a second patient and discharged them at the scene.”
Mark Davis, TfL’s general manager for London Trams, said: “Our thoughts are with the e-scooter rider who collided with a tram between Ampere Way and Waddon Marsh tram stops.
“We know this incident would have been very upsetting for all those involved and will offer any support they need. We will support the police and operator’s investigation.”
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This is sad, but it had to happen, I guess.
I have previously commented on the dangers created by escooter riders to themselves and others. I have frequently seen an adult ‘driving’ an escooter with a child standing on the platform, which is extraordinarily dangerous.
It is urgent that clear and enforced regulations are introduced, including insurance and training requirements …. or else scooters simply need to be banned from use on any public highway or footpath.
Electric scooters are banned currently in Croydon, Martin.
But as with so many things, there is no enforcement.
Let’s start by recognising that someone is currently in hospital with seriously injuries, and hope he makes a swift and full recovery.
E-scooters are currently being used legally across England. That’s provided they’ve been rented, and not bought from companies like Halfords (whose website boasts 39 non-street-legal models).
As part of nationwide trials organised by the government’s Department for Transport, and in London by TfL, e-scooters rented from Dott, Lime and TIER are available for hire in the following boroughs:
• Camden
• City of London
• Ealing
• Hammersmith & Fulham
• Kensington and Chelsea
• Lambeth (north of the borough only)
• Richmond upon Thames
• Southwark
• Tower Hamlets
• Westminster
Outside the capital, they are being trialled in nearly fifty other locations, from Aylesbury to York, including the cities of Birmingham, Liverpool and Newcastle.
The jury is still out on the pros and cons.
On the launch, London Cycling Campaign welcomed the trials as an important step towards reducing dependency on private cars and so cutting carbon emissions and pollution. While e-scooters don’t offer the full benefits of active travel, they are small, electric-powered, and offer an alternative to car use for shorter trips. In its landmark Climate Safe Streets report LCC concluded that: “if London can learn the lessons from other cities, then [e-scooters] should be a welcome addition to the city’s travel options.”
Cycling UK were critical of the government for changing the specifications on e-scooters to be used in the trials. They raised the initially proposed 12.5mph maximum speed, 350w power and 35kg weight to 15.5mph, 500w and 50kg. To put that into context, a legal e-bike is powered by a 250w motor, and a Tour de France cyclist typically produces 250-300 watts.
Living Streets raised concerns about safety of illegal scooters, stating that “under no circumstances should e-scooters or e-scooter parking take up pedestrian space.”
It’s worth noting that technology can be and is being used to limit rented e-scooter speeds in certain areas. You can imagine the outcry if that facility were applied to cars to stop their drivers breaking speed limits, yet the safety benefits would be enormous.
Last month Transport minister Trudy Harrison announced that English local authorities have the option of continuing pilot schemes for rental e-scooters until the end of May 2024. This will allow the Government to “gather further evidence where gaps are identified, building on the findings of the current evaluation.”
For Croydon to realise the benefits outlined in the government’s policy document, the Future of Mobility: Urban Strategy, the council needs to up its game in providing cycle lanes that match the quality and continuity of those laid down in other parts of London and to roll out more LTNs. That would allow more people to go by bike, enable us to trial and use e-scooters safely, cut carbon emissions and congestion and improve air quality and public health.
Personally I don’t think that escooters will ever be safe enough, and perhaps the test of that will come when (or if) the government makes insurance obligatory …. at which point I suspect that the insurance companies will decline to insure them.
Of course we all know that purchased escooters are illegal and (as I stated in my earlier post) there is an absolute need for enforcement of the existing regulations. As a matter of interest, I tried to go through the Metropolitan Police’s online reporting process – and I discovered that under the “report a traffic offence” option the offence of riding an escooter is NOWHERE mentioned in the list of possible offences!!!!!! I think that makes it clear that the police have been ‘warned off’ implementing the regulations.
Could we pressurise the police ? If enough people complained to their councillors, and if we demanded that the Met added “riding an escooter” to their reporting list. I would be willing to undertake the latter if there is enough support expressed here.
Until now there has been no case to prove that peoples’ lives are at risk from escooters, but the event reported here now changes that.