Townsville police urge residents to follow e-scooter rules
They've added a splash of speed and colour to the city’s footpaths, but police have stressed the need for riders to remain vigilant when they are Using Townsville’s new e-scooters.
Townsville
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They've added a splash of speed and colour to the city’s footpaths, but police have stressed the need for riders to remain vigilant when they are Using Townsville’s new e-scooters.
250 bright orange Neuron Mobility e-scooters were rolled out on Saturday, and have quickly taken the pavement around the city and The Strand by storm.
Senior Sergeant Dean Cavanagh said police were yet to lay a charge in relation to people misusing the devices.
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“We have had some reports of people misbehaving on the scooters and committing offences, but in our observations and patrols to date there is also a large amount of people doing the right thing,” Snr-Sgt Cavanagh said.
“It’s great to come down to The Strand and see families enjoying them on the school holidays.”
Snr-Sgt Cavanagh said the community had notified police of people riding in a dangerous manner around pedestrians, not wearing helmets and damaging them scooters.
A 21-year old woman was hospitalised on Monday evening after falling off a scooter in North Ward and hitting her head, while an image also surfaced on social media of a scooter thrown off a cliff at Jezzine Barracks.
Snr-Sgt Cavanagh urged the community to follow the rules and loom after the city’s newest attraction.
“There’s a lot of rules around using these scooters,” he said.
“Obviously helmets must be worn, age limits apply, speed limits apply.
“It’s an offence to damage anyone’s property, it’s also an offence to steal those scooters. So if that small minority of people do the wrong thing we’ll investigate.
“Our main priority is community safety and that’s one of the things that we’ll be trying to enforce with these scooters.
“If they (the community) observe someone doing the wrong thing please report it to us. We want to make sure this service remains there so the community can enjoy it.”
A spokeswoman for Neuron Mobility said they expect the scooter to seamlessly become an integral part of Townsville as time goes on.
“We have experienced a very busy first weekend in Townsville and overall the feedback has been extremely positive,” the spokeswoman said.
“From an operational point of view, we’ll continue to refine our operation over the coming days, including making small adjustments to the riding area. The aim is to integrate into the city in the best and safest way possible.
“We take safety very seriously and while it is not possible to eliminate incidents entirely we strive to reduce the risks as much as possible. This is why we are continually rolling out new safety features like our Helmet Lock, triple-0 Emergency Button, Topple Detection, and ‘Follow my Ride’ functions, which have all been introduced to our e-scooters in Townsville.”
Originally published as Townsville police urge residents to follow e-scooter rules