The Government is being urged to do much more to drive down the number of death and injuries on Britain’s roads.

One of the biggest areas of concern is the casualty figures involving e-scooters.

Two wheeled concerns

IAM RoadSmart has made the call in the wake of the Department for Transport’s (DfT) latest official figures for casualties.

‘Reported Road casualties Great Britain, annual report: 2021’ revealed that there were 1,434 casualties involving e-scooters. Of these, 10 people were killed, 421 were seriously injured and 1,003 were slightly injured.

This is in stark contrast to the DfT’s 2020 statistics. These recorded 484 casualties involving e-scooters, including one death, 128 serious injuries and 355 slight injuries. Shockingly, this means there has been a 900% increase in deaths in just 12 months.

The government introduced a number of pilot schemes in some UK cities in 2020. These allowed local authorities to set up hire schemes. However, the use of private e-scooters is still illegal in public, whether on the pavement, cycle lanes or on the road. It had promised to bring forward legislation this year, but this has been delayed. In te meantime, e-scooter use has gained huge popularity, and there is currently no official regulation governing manufacture, sale or use.

Road reality

Neil Greig, Director of Policy and Research at IAM RoadSmart says “the e-scooter carnage must stop”.

“A tenfold increase in deaths related to e-scooters in just one year is utterly unacceptable'” says Greig. “The continued delay in regulating these machines is costing lives and causing misery on our city roads every day. ”

IAM RoadSmart is calling on the new Transport Secretary, Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP, to make road safety her number one priority. Not least “introducing the long-awaited Transport Bill to regulate e-scooters for the first time”.

Time for change

But there are more issues to deal with. Over the last 12 years of Conservative government, road safety has plateaued. There have been no noteable improvements in the annual casualty figures.

The latest report reveals there was an 11% decrease in casualties in 2021 compared to 2019. However, overall road casualties have returned to the stagnation trend of the past decade after a sharp decrease in casualties in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Neil added: “The latest crash statistics make for depressing reading and the DfT now needs to show leadership in road safety and publish its long-awaited strategy for England and the Road Policing Review. Once we have a clear government vision for road safety, we can all start working together to deliver it and keep Britain’s roads as safe as they can possibly be.”