Appeal for Mayo bye-laws to control e-scooters in public places

Urgent by-laws need to be enacted by Mayo County Council to control the use of e-scooters in public spaces.

This is the opinion of Castlebar Councillor Ger Deere who also appealed to parents of young children to think twice before purchasing e-scooters for young children and teenagers as the Christmas season approaches.

Councillor Deere said he has observed a number of young children moving at speeds of up to 25km per hour through the roads and pavements of Castlebar.

He elaborated: “This is causing difficulty for pedestrians and motorists who are forced to take evasive action to avoid collisions with these scooters. Children are using these vehicles to get to and from school.

"Just last week an elderly woman was knocked down by an e-scooter in the centre of Castlebar at Ellison Street while in the past 24 hours I became aware of an incident on the Turlough Greenway where a female cyclist collided with an e-scooter and received serious injuries.

“There are currently no regulations in place nationally. It is anticipated that legislation will come into effect at some stage next year but by then a young person who is travelling on one of these motorised bikes could do serious damage.”

He said it is bad enough that adults are travelling around in these unregularised vehicles but "children as young as eight or nine are not able to control these vehicles and should not be operating them to travel on our public roads and someone could end up in hospital as a result."

“I am appealing to parents not to consider buying e-scooters for their children for Christmas and at least until proper legislation or by-laws are put in place for their use,” he added.