Germany: E-scooter accidents and fatalities on the rise
July 26, 2024
Accidents involving e-scooters in Germany are on the rise, the country's Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said in a report on Friday.
The number of people injured from such accidents also rose in 2023, with around 80% of the victims younger than 45 years old, the statistics office said.
"E-scooters have become an integral part of the street scene in Germany," the office said in a statement. "This also leads to accidents involving these means of transport. Young people in particular are involved in such e-scooter accidents."
Last year, police in Germany registered 9,425 e-scooter accidents, up 14.1% more than the previous year when there were 8,260 accidents. The number of fatalities following road accidents on the stand-up powered vehicles in 2023 doubled to 22.
Around 60% of all e-scooter accidents recorded by the statistics office occurred in cities with a population of 100,000 or more.
Costly accidents
The office also identified the most common reasons for these incidents, namely the improper use of the road or pavement and riding under the influence of alcohol.
Accidents caused by e-scooters that were parked were not included among the annual figures. As a result of carelessly parked e-scooters, some German cities ask for the electric vehicles to be parked in designated points.
"Every accident with personal injury costs an average of over €13,000 euros, for example for treatment costs, loss of work and compensation for pain and suffering,” Jörg Asmussen, Managing Director of the German Insurance Association (GDV), said.
"E-scooters have no place on footpaths. They increase the risk of accidents for themselves and for others."
E-scooter ban in Paris
In September 2023, Paris banned e-scooters after the French capital's mayor described their usage as bringing "anarchy" to the city.
The decision came after voters in Paris overwhelmingly approved outlawing them.
Paris recorded some 20 million trips on 15,000 rental e-scooters in 2022, but it also registered 459 accidents involving the stand-up vehicles, or ones of a similar nature, in the same year, including three fatal ones.
jsi/rmt (Reuters, dpa)