Qld e-scooter crackdown: Tougher fines for speeding, phone use

With Brisbane’s e-scooter boom to accelerate over the holiday period, police will be dishing out tougher penalties for misuse.

Police are launching a Christmas crackdown on e-scooters, with thousands of Queenslanders receiving the popular devices as gifts or snapping them up in Boxing Day sales.

Hundreds of Queenslanders have been injured or even killed since the e-scooter boom began several years ago, and police and local councils have been inundated with complaints about dangerous behaviour on footpaths and roads.

Queensland police acting Chief Superintendent Chris Stream, of the Road Policing and Regional Support Command, said officers would be targeting illegal and dangerous e-scooter riding as part of a festive season traffic blitz.

“There’s every possibility, in fact I can almost guarantee it, that people are going to be getting electric scooters for Christmas,” he said.

“They should absolutely be wearing safety equipment while riding those, paying attention to all the road rules and, in particular for those just getting onto an e-scooter, you really need to be aware of other traffic and road users.

“We’ve seen a number of injury accidents and fatalities with e-scooters and it’s something we will be paying close attention to in the city and on the Gold and Sunshine coasts over the festive period.”

E-scooter riders in Brisbane

Latest Queensland Health figures reveal an alarming increase in e-scooter injury hospital presentations over the past few years.

The Metro North Hospital and Health Service recorded 952 e-scooter-related presentations at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, Princess Alexandra and Mater hospitals between November 2018 and June last year.

Townsville Hospital had 256 e-scooter-related presentations in the 18 months to July this year, while Gold Coast and Robina hospitals recorded almost 200 e-scooter injury cases in the past two years.

Metro South Hospital and Health Service had 247 e-scooter accident presentations in 2021.

A Queensland Health spokesman said at least 29 per cent of all e-scooter emergency department admissions involved alcohol and about 30 per cent involved speed.

The state government recently introduced tougher penalties for e-scooter riders flouting the law as part of a safety crackdown on the increasingly popular form of transport.

Users busted speeding more than 30km/h over the limit can now be slapped with a $575 fine and those using mobile phones can be slugged $1078 – the same as motorists.

Riders caught travelling up to 14km/h over the speed limit can be fined $143, and those nabbed speeding between 14km/h and 20km/h over the limit are being hit with $215 penalties.