Tim Morris and Ewan Findlater encourage people to scoot safe after E-Scooter users hit with fines

Rockhampton police and E-Scooter company Neuron are encouraging locals to scoot safe over the holidays after police issued a number of infringement notices to riders. Full details here.

They’ve become a popular recreational activity and mode of transport for short distances, but authorities are reminding people to be safe on E-Scooters as their use ramps up over the school holidays.

In the past week, Rockhampton police have issued 10 infringement notices to people on E-Scooters for offences including not wearing a helmet, travelling on a prohibited road and more than one person on the scooter.

The orange Neuron E-Scooters were introduced to Rockhampton six weeks ago and already, the company has recorded 35,000 trips around the Beef Capital.

Queensland regional manager for Neuron Mobility Tim Morris said the community had “really embraced” the E-Scooters.

“We’ve clocked up 35,000 trips, which is over 100,000km travelled on Neuron E-Scooters, so we wanted to take the opportunity heading into Easter and Rocky Nats to remind people to use the E-Scooters safely,” he said.

“The key things are to wear a helmet, one person per scooter and these ones aren’t for the kids, so you do have to be 18 to ride them.

“The vast majority are already doing the right thing.”

Officer in charge of Rockhampton Highway Patrol Senior Sergeant Ewan Findlater said while a majority of people were doing the right thing on the E-Scooters, a few issues were starting to emerge.

Neuron Mobility regional manager for Queensland Tim Morris and Rockhampton Highway Patrol Officer in Charge Senior Sergeant Ewan Findlater are encouraging locals to scoot safe on E-Scooters these school holidays.

“One of the most common is people not wearing helmets, and there has been enforcement action taken against a number of abusers of the Neuron scooters,” he said.

“We’ve also seen people riding them where they shouldn’t, so if you’re going to ride it on a road, the road has to be a speed limit of no more than 50kmh which takes out most of our main roads here in town which is where we do see them.

“We’ve also seen a few people who have been on the drink, had a few beers and hop on them so there’s been a few charged with drink-driving on the scooters, and I believe the other day there was a person issued and infringement notice for using a mobile phone on the scooter which is also an offence.”

Snr Sergeant Findlater said depending on the offence people could face fines and, if caught drink-driving on the scooters, court appearances.

“It’s another road user group we need to monitor and another road user group we need to police - we are looking at some tactics that may be appropriate if the behaviour continues,” he said.

“Last week there were about 10 helmet related tickets issued, and there were three or four issued for people using them in restricted locations.”

Mr Morris said so far the feedback from locals about the scooters had been positive.

“We’ve seen people really embracing E-Scooters as a way to get around town - a lot are replacing short car trips which is great to see,” he said.

“We’ve seen the average trip length is about 2.5km.

“E-Scooters are proving to be a popular choice for those shorter trips around town whether that’s over to Kershaw Gardens for a day out or a quick trip across town.

“E-scooters are a great option in terms of affordability so people can choose something that’s environmentally friendly but also low cost.”