Shelley Rowlands was leaving Melbourne’s tennis precinct on foot when she was knocked over from behind by two young men on an e-scooter.
They were riding at 25 kilometres per hour on a footpath, had been drinking and weren’t wearing helmets.
The 62-year-old surgeon ended up with a three-day stay in hospital, surgery to her wrists, a broken arm, cuts to her head and significant bruising.
The ordeal, which occurred on January 18, has cost her about $20,000 — including lost income for time off work, medical costs, rehab for her hands, plus Uber trips and meals because she couldn’t drive or cook.
Ms Rowlands hasn’t found any recourse for compensation and she doesn’t want to sue the young men.
“It seems like a really wrong thing to do for a problem that shouldn’t have occurred in the first place,” she said.
Tougher measures from authorities to enforce e-scooter road rules to prevent accidents are a must, she says, but when accidents do happen, she’s concerned many people couldn’t afford recovery.
“There must be so many people around that wouldn’t have the social support or the economic security to be able to manage this on their own. What would they do?” Ms Rowlands said.
Police slam ‘reckless’ e-scooter riders
Victoria Police are keenly aware of illegal behaviour among e-scooter users, issuing almost 300 fines in a two-day operation in the Melbourne CBD this week.
“We were really disappointed with what we found but not surprised,” Assistant Commissioner Glenn Weir from Road Policing Command said on Friday.
He said officers apprehended privately owned e-scooter users and those using hired e-scooters.
“The majority of e-scooter riders do the right thing … but we are still seeing people take really unreasonable and dangerous risks on the roads,” Assistant Commissioner Weir said.
The number of people flagrantly flouting rules such as riding on footpaths, not wearing helmets and dinking (allowing a second person to ride on the back), was “amazing”, he said.
“Even when there is a marked police car in front of them … people still take this reckless, almost arrogant approach.”
Hospitals in Melbourne have been recording increasing numbers of injuries since the e-scooter trial started in 2022.
What are the rules for riding an e-scooter in Victoria?
E-scooters are legal in Victoria under trial rules.
E-scooter hire companies defend their safety efforts
Two of the biggest e-scooter hire companies that operate in Melbourne are Neuron and Lime.
The e-scooter Melbourne woman Shelley Rowlands was run over with was a Neuron, and in response to questions about the incident, the company told the ABC it had permanently banned the rider involved.
Both companies said they had invested heavily in safety features such geofencing technology to control where e-scooters could go and how fast they could travel.
Neuron and Lime said they had incentivised helmet-wearing and put e-scooter road rules in their apps.
Neuron said 99.9 per cent of its trips ended “without incident”.
And Neuron said it provided extensive insurance coverage for riders, including personal accident insurance and third-party insurance covering accidental injuries or property damage. Neuron said it also held significant public liability insurance.
Lime said it had “no tolerance” for illegal behaviour and supported police action to rein in dangerous behaviour.
“In repeated or severe cases, riders are banned,” Will Peters, director of government relations for Lime Australia and New Zealand, said.
He said a trial run by Lime using cameras on 100 scooters in Melbourne found footpath riding was most common at the start and end of trips, where bike paths had not been provided.
“The data also showed that riders spend 13 seconds on the footpath after the ride begins and 11 seconds when parking,” Mr Peters said.
Suggestion for e-scooting on roads
Co-founder of Melbourne-based e-scooter company Voltrium Jeffrey Lee said it was still too easy for young people to hire scooters without wearing a helmet.
“A lot of other e-scooter brand owners have quite a negative view of hire scooters and the reputation that gives electric scooter riders as a whole,” he said.
He suggested the Victorian government should consider a new legal category for e-scooter riders to make it safer for them to ride on roads.
This would be a “moped” category — between an electric bike and motorcycle — enabling e-scooters to ride up to 50-60kph.