Geraldton police crack down on e-scooter behaviour, issuing on-the-spot fines following alleged drunk crash

Police will start enforcing on-the-spot fines in a bid to crack down on unacceptable e-scooter behaviour around Geraldton in the wake of a recent alleged drunk-driving scooter crash. Geraldton police say they will actively enforce fines to riders seen acting poorly on e-scooters following a 25-year-old man colliding with a Suzuki Baleno while riding a Beam e-scooter last Friday night at the Fitzgerald Street and Lester Avenue roundabout. The man, who was not wearing a helmet and may have been intoxicated, received head injuries, was flown to hospital by Royal Flying Doctors Service, but escaped serious injury. No charges have been laid yet as police wait for blood test results. In this instance, it’s understood that the Beam app’s sobriety test was 10 minutes away from coming into effect, a Beam spokesperson confirmed. The on-the-spot fines within police’s power to hand out include $50 for failure to wear a helmet, $300 for unlawful use of a visual display and $1000 for using a mobile phone. Carrying a passenger or animal is an on-the-spot fine of $50, while riding recklessly while impaired with drugs or alcohol is $100. Being towed by another vehicle will cost $100 and speeding in a carriageway over 50km/h will cost riders up to $500. Officer-in-charge Sen. Sgt Chris Martin said e-scooter riders should be aware they are subject to the same responsibility, legislation and traffic charges as other road users. “We are going to be taking a much tougher approach to people riding on private and hired e-scooters,” he said. “At the beginning we were very supportive of the initiative, we still are, but the problem with e-rideables is the user. The users are not abiding by the laws.” Since the Beam e-scooter trial began in Geraldton in September last year, Sen. Sgt Martin said there had been less than five reported accidents. Police had regular discussions with Beam about abandoned scooters, failure of users to wear helmets and general rider behaviour. “The inherent dangers and the behaviour we’ve seen from some people in Geraldton using e-rideables, I’m surprised we’ve only had one major incident so far,” he said. “Unfortunately a lot of people in Geraldton are letting themselves down. “Before we lose this fantastic mode of transport in Geraldton people need to improve their behaviour because if not they’re going to keep copping fines.” Although WA Country Health Service said there were no statistics pointing specifically to e-scooter injuries requiring hospital treatment, Geraldton’s chair of the Mid West Division of General Practice Dr Richard Taylor said he’d seen a notable rise in the number of people who needed surgery for e-scooter injuries since the trial began. “We’re seeing lots of scooter injuries, we are taking a lot of people to theatre with broken bones and soft tissue injuries,” Dr Taylor said. Many of these injuries have been caused by riders making poor decisions when riding, Dr Taylor said, such as not wearing their helmets or proper footwear, and in some cases being intoxicated. A Beam spokesperson said the company was pleased with the trial so far and were seeing similar trends in Geraldton as in other operating areas. Beam e-scooters have travelled 280,000km ridden to date with an average of 14 minutes per ride, while 132 riders have been permanently banned from the platform for contravening the rules. About 150 riders per month are barred from the Beam app by Rider Check. The spokesperson said Beam used a three-strike policy to enforce proper riding and were constantly making changes to parking spot locations, slow zones, no-go zones and no parking zones in collaboration with council, police and the local community. “Serious incidents on an e-scooter remain very rare, and the majority of incidents that occur are minor and require first aid only,” the spokesperson said. City of Greater Geraldton Mayor Shane Van Styn said he was aware several riders were not following Beam’s requirements, and said people need to learn to take responsibility as the community adapted to this new form of transportation. “A lot of people are still not wearing their helmet which is a legal requirement, and we ask that people observe a bit of common sense,” he said. “Be mindful of pedestrians, treat Beam scooters if you would any vehicle on the road and follow all the relevant road laws.” Revolutions Bike Hire owner Paul Baldock said people weren’t giving enough due care. “They’re not aware of the small wheel and what damage it can do if you bump something at a funny angle, or if they twist their body to look backward,” he said. “You can’t hold everybody’s hand, you can’t tell them what to do, they’re happy to push the limit, what can you do.”