Retailers caught selling e-scooters for ‘commuting’ despite road ban
Major British retailers have been selling e-scooters for “commuting” despite warnings from police and coroners that it is illegal and puts riders at risk of serious injury or death.
Brands such as Currys, Argos and Halfords, as well as online giant Amazon, used marketing pitches about “urban riding”, getting to work on time, and “long distanced commutes” to sell the electric vehicles.
Under the current law, privately-owned e-scooters and hoverboards are banned from public spaces such as roads, cycle lanes and pavements, and can only be legally used on private land.
But government figures shows that up to 950,000 e-scooters are now believed to be privately owned across England alone.
In 2022, after a 14-year-old girl fell off her e-scooter and died under the wheels of a minibus, a coroner criticised retailers for selling the vehicles without proper warnings about the law, saying that without change there would be more deaths.
In June, police forces across the country mounted a co-ordinated crackdown on illegal e-scooter use, and official data shows 10 people were killed and 1,484 injured in e-scooter collisions last year.
Research has now revealed that retailers – from major brands to specialist e-scooter sellers – have been giving customers the impression that the vehicles can be used on the road.
Published: by Radio NewsHub