A District Court Judge says there doesn’t seem to be any Garda policy in relation to e-scooters.
At a sitting of Tralee District Court, Judge David Waters spoke on issues he said concerned him surrounding electric scooters.
On May 20th this year new regulations in relation to e-scooters was introduced – including that users must be aged 16 or over.
However, Judge Waters said he has seen instances where this has not been the case.
E-scooters can be used on local, regional and national roads, however they are not permitted on motorways, footpaths or pedestrianised areas.
Other measures include that e-scooters can not have a seat, no passengers are allowed and they must have a braking device and lights in the correct positions.
Speaking in Tralee District Court recently, Judge David Waters said he sees hundreds of e-scooters daily being used on footpaths and in other ways which breach legislation.
He added that there seems to be a general unwritten policy in how gardaí deal with e-scooters and this needs to be addressed.
There are now 41 offences in relation to e-scooters, which result in fixed penalty notices.
Nationally last year, over 220 e-scooter crashes were recorded by gardaí, with almost 25% of these resulting in serious or fatal injuries.
Judge Waters says that breaches of legislation and instances of dangerous driving of e-scooters, should be treated by Gardaí as they would a case of drink driving or dangerous driving of a car.
