Man riding e-scooter killed after collision with car in London
Police were called by the London Ambulance Service around 5.40pm on Sunday to Tower Hamlets to reports of a collision involving a car and an e-scooter. The driver of the car, a blue Kia, failed to stop at the scene.
Monday 25 July 2022 15:25, UK
A man riding an e-scooter has died after a collision with a car in east London.
Police were called by the London Ambulance Service around 5.40pm on Sunday to Tower Hamlets to reports of a collision involving a car and an e-scooter.
Officers and London's Air Ambulance attended the scene.
The rider, a 32-year-old man, was taken to an east London hospital where he died at 8.35pm.
The driver of the car, a blue Kia, failed to stop at the scene.
The vehicle was located nearby and enquiries are ongoing to trace the driver, police said.
Any witnesses or anyone with dashcam footage that may assist are asked to call the Roads and Transport Policing Command on 020 8597 4874 or call the police on 101 quoting CAD 5622/24JUL.
E-scooter crashes up 2,800% in first half of 2021
Earlier this year it was revealed that e-scooter crashes shot up almost 2,800% in London in the first half of 2021 compared to the entirety of 2018.
There were 258 collisions in the capital in the first six months of last year, according to Met Police data.
Across all of 2018 there were just nine. The number rose to 38 the following year before a spike to 266 in 2020.
Privately-owned e-scooters are becoming an increasingly common sight on roads and pavements in UK cities, even though they can only be legally used on private land.
Last year London joined dozens of towns and cities across the UK in launching an e-scooter rental scheme under government trials, which began in July 2020. The trials involve several safety measures, such as maximum speed limits and automatic lights.
Some 3,637 of the scooters were seized by the Met Police between January and November 2021, and any owners wanting to retrieve them must pay £150 and a £10 daily storage charge.
In December Transport for London banned e-scooters from all public transport amid fire safety concerns after one e-scooter caught fire on a Tube train.