Three injuries a day among users of electric scooters and that is just the tip of the iceberg, according to the researchers. After all, not all accidents or people who are injured by using the scooter are registered. Striking figures that apply to a lesser extent in cities such as Ghent and Bruges. After all, there are no providers of e-scooters in these cities because the city does not allow this. The main reason for this is the cobblestones in the street that make it impossible to use the scooter.
Many accidents involving e-scooters do not involve any other road user. The growing popularity of the electric scooter has also been reflected in the accident figures since last year. Police recorded four deaths across the country from e-scooter accidents, representing a total of 1.022 incidents.
safe electric scooter
Entrepreneurs of the Ghent start-up Taito have used their own experiences with an electric scooter in Ghent to build a model that they believe is a lot safer. A bit copied from the engines. The scooter has 2 wheels at the front and 1 at the back. According to the inventors, this makes you a lot more stable than on the usual 2 wheels. In addition, a lot of attention was paid to lighting and suspension. The inventors are from Ghent and know the cobblestones and the uneven road surface. They took advantage of the university's support program for young entrepreneurs. The electric scooter will be launched in the summer.
“Our goal is to bring the safest electric scooter to the market. The company is launching its pre-sale today via crowdfunding platform Indiegogo.”
According to Vias, the main reason for the number of accidents is the unstable and bumpy driving experience on cobblestones, slippery roads and in potholes. In the Taito design, the founders François Desmet, Nathan De Baets and Jules Dobbelaere opted for a design with optimal shock absorption thanks to three larger, pneumatic tires, a patented, innovative suspension and a floating wooden platform.
Since October 2019, a new type of road user has been registered by the police in the accident forms: e-step users. Since this new mode of transport has become more and more popular in recent years and is increasingly involved in road accidents, it has been decided to include the accident statistics related to this type of user in the road safety barometer.
traffic barometer
The road safety barometer is published quarterly and provides an overview of the number of road accidents resulting in personal injury (injury accidents) that have occurred since the beginning of the year. In addition to the number of injury crashes, data on the number of road casualties (injuries and fatalities) are also published. The figures are compared with the figures in the corresponding periods in previous years in order to map evolutions in accident figures.
Also read: For the e-step, the environmental balance is still negative