Metropolitan Police warns rise in electric scooter crashes

There's been an increase in e-scooter crashes in the capital, figures from the Metropolitan Police suggest.

Due to illegal use, collisions on e-scooter are underreported. In 2018 there were four reported collisions. In 2018 the figure rose to 32 crashes.

Chief Superintendent Simon Ovens, from the Met’s Road and Transport Policing Command, said privately owned e-scooters remain illegal on roads and in public places.

Under the Road Traffic Act 1988, she said it is the equivalent of "riding a motorcycle on the road without any MOT, tax or insurance."

The Met Police said their priority is to keep people safe on our roads and make sure people are aware of the rules.

“In the lead up to Christmas, we want to remind people that if you are buying one, under current legislation, you can only ride it on private land with the land owner’s permission.

“If you are out on an e-scooter in London, expect to be stopped by officers as we continue to help keep Londoners safe.”

Operation Hornet, the Met’s safety operation around e-scooters, has now been running for over a year.

This allows officers to give one-time warnings to those who are stopped after explaining the legislation to them. To date officers have seized 268 e-scooters and given 604 warnings.

Police say due to the speed they go and because they are silent and unregistered we are now seeing them being used to commit crime.

Since July we have had reports of over 290 crimes carried out involving one for various offences including robbery, assault and theft currently under investigation by officers.