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New laws are being introduced for e-scooters Parliament of South Australia will leave crash victims without protection, legal experts have warned.
The state government will introduced the laws this week, making it legal to ride a private electric scooter on public roads and trails.
But the current proposal does not require owners to register or insure the devices.
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Tony Kerin of the Law Society of South Australia said it would mean crash victims would have to take civil action against a motorcyclist who causes them serious injury.
He said victims risk not getting paid if the defendant doesn’t have the assets to compensate them.
“The injuries you can get from using a scooter can be quite significant and there have already been cases of this in Australia,” Kerin said
“If you’re in a motor vehicle and someone crashes and leaves the scene and you don’t get the registration, there’s a nominal defendant scheme that’s set up to cover that incident, any registration or insurance scheme would or should cover that too.”
“(For scooters) it’s luck of the draw. (It) depends on who is hitting you and whether there are enough assets to satisfy any legal claim or right you have,” he said.
Doctors in Melbourne did public plea for people to be careful of e-scooters after the Royal Melbourne Hospital reported 256 patients were admitted to the hospital in 12 months, straining waiting times for elective surgery.
Simon Michalak was hit by an electric scooter on a footpath in Melbourne and smashed his head on the pavement.
The teenagers who bumped into him got away without charge, he said.
He called the South Australian government’s proposed laws “dangerous and irresponsible”.
“When I was sent to the hospital, there were several others, including a man in his 80s who had also been hit by a scooter that same day,” Michalak said.
“If they hit someone and caused serious damage, where is the responsibility?
“The government, if it’s not careful and doesn’t consider a third-party rule, could be the third party that’s responsible.”
South Australia’s Infrastructure and Transport Minister Tom Koutsantonis said treating e-scooters as a motor vehicle was a “regulatory burden that was too high”.
“Every other jurisdiction treats them like bicycles and we will do the same here,” he said.
A recent public consultation on the laws found that 76 per cent of respondents supported motorcyclists not having to hold a licence, while 68 per cent saw no need to register or insure their devices.
“If we’re going to have a full nanny where we have a regulatory burden on everyone, why not pedestrians?
“I think we have the right balance,” Koutsantonis said.
If the laws make it through parliament, the regulations will mean motorcyclists will have to be over 16 to ride unsupervised, will be required to wear a helmet at all times and will not be able to ride while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
On roads and bike lanes, the speed limit for e-scooters will be 25 km/h, while on footpaths it will be 15 km/h.
Koutsantonis said he expects the regulations to protect pedestrians and other road users from serious injury.
He said the provisions would be consulted with other stakeholders and could be changed once the bill is passed in late 2024 or early 2025.
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