With e-scooter accidents on the rise in Quebec, Montreal police (SPVM) have launched a campaign with 20 SPVM cadets on scooters to promote safety and educate the public about the dangers of riding without a protective helmet.
Last fall, Quebec launched a pilot project authorizing e-scooters on the road.
“They go to meet these users, then they provide prevention advice,” said SPVM Commander Michel Lebrun. “They demonstrate features that are legal on the scooter, on the device, but also they give safety advice to users.”
Currently, some of the regulations in place include a minimum rider age of 14 years old, a maximum speed of 25 km per hour, with no passengers allowed.
“You have to follow the rules like everybody else,” said Erika Sanchez, visiting from the United States. “You got to look at the lights, you got to do the stops as if you were driving a car.”
SPVM says the most common infractions on electric scooters is the failure to wear a helmet, passing through a red light and driving on the sidewalk.
Amaia Gonzalez de Garibay is in town from Spain and said that she stops at every cross walk.
“I will stop in every cross even if the light is green and even if I think that there are no cars around.”
The Montreal Children’s Hospital’s Trauma Centre have treated at least seven patients with electric scooter related injuries over the past three months.
Daniel Murphy is from Ireland, visiting Montreal.
He said that helmets are there for a reason.
“The safer you can make everything the better,” said Murphy. “Helmets are there for a purpose, why not use them. The public Lime scooters here had helmets, so we naturally used them.”
At the end of June, a 14-year-old boy died after being hit by a car in Ahuntsic-Cartierville while riding his electric scooter.
“The important thing is the information. The kids should know the scooter as any other means of transport. The information for me is the key that we have to show it in schools,” concluded Gonzalez de Garibay.