A serious accident every three days on the roads warns scooters

AGI – One death and 123 serious accidents, one every three days. More frequent in the big cities of the north (Milan at the top) and in Rome. The first numbers of claims involving electric scooters in 2020 (updated to December 13) are those of the Asaps Special Observatory, the association of friends and sympathizers of the traffic police.

Alarming numbers, if we take into account that scooters in circulation are still relatively few (70-80 thousand according to some estimates), that the pandemic has imposed many restrictions on circulation and that a real estimate -also due to the scarce availability of data at the level of municipalities- It seems difficult, if not impossible, given the large number of incidents that fortunately are resolved with minor damages and without the intervention of the traffic police.

“The main cause of the accident – explain the experts of the Association – it is the autonomous fall by tipping, without colliding with fixed obstacles. This aspect undoubtedly affects both distraction while driving – many users who use their mobile while driving also to take selfies – and the inexperience of the driver, who is often very young, but also road maintenance on many city arteries. , bumpy. and depressions that do not facilitate the use of a vehicle with very small wheels, especially in historic centers ”.

The frontal and lateral confrontations continue, often at road junctions, where priorities are not respected, and collisions with fixed obstacles. Asaps also found 8 accidents with alcohol-impaired scooter drivers reported to judicial authorities for driving while intoxicated.

The region in which the most numerous and serious accidents occurred is Lombardy, with 54: Milan also leads the ranking among large cities, also as a consequence of the very high use of shared vehicles. Piedmont ranks second with 14 serious accidents (leading Turin), followed by Lazio with 13 serious accidents (almost all of which occurred in Rome, where the situation in the months after the closure was particularly difficult) and Abruzzo and Emilia Romagna with 6 each one. .

In Budrio, in the province of Bologna, the first fatal accident occurred in June, with a 60-year-old man who was killed in a collision with a car in a fast-flowing roundabout. But the final balance also includes 11 injured with a reserved forecast (including two children) and 47 with a forecast of more than 40 days.

Thirty of the users involved were under 18 years of age, which shows its use mainly by very young people, while an 86-year-old is currently the oldest involved, run over by two minors aboard a scooter in Cesena last September. .

The launch of scooters as electric micro-mobility devices took place in June 2019 on an experimental basis, with a decree from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, but 2020 is the year in which the scooter has become a real vehicle, with the Bicycle Comparison: “Their number has grown in all the big cities but also in the provinces, with the arrival of 13 companies that today rent their vehicles and have won tenders published in many cities.”

“We agree with the use of electric micro-mobility vehicles, also as an aid to the environment to limit pollution – admits Giordano Biserni, president of Asaps – but we see too many users walking through the streets with scooters as if they were in a meadow road, which does not exist “.

Biserni demands respect for the most elementary rules, “from the correct use of the roads to the respect of vertical and horizontal signage, unaltered driving and the fact that the scooter is not a toy and the arteries are not amusement parks. Controls and penalties should be increased Although the use of a helmet is recommended, given the severity of the injuries suffered by many drivers even in autonomous falls, it would be necessary to have insurance even for vehicles not rented but used by individuals. pandemic, this vehicle can certainly be useful but without some fundamental concepts we will not have greater road safety, and exchange companies must also participate in this objective, monitoring their devices and the number of accidents in which customers are involved, blocking their use in case of repeated violations of the regulations of the Highway Code “.