Police in North Yorkshire have seized more than 50 e-bikes and e-scooters amid concerns from community leaders that “nut jobs” riding the machines will kill and seriously injure someone.
Concerns about the illegal use of electric bikes and scooters on the county’s roads was highlighted this week at the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel meeting held at County Hall, in Northallerton.
Selby councillor Steve Shaw-Wright said anti-social behaviour caused by riders of the machines had become the “bane of his life”.
Asking if accidents caused by e-bikes and e-scooters would be included in North Yorkshire Police’s official accident figures, the councillor said:
“I’m quite sure (people) will be killed and seriously injured very shortly because they’re nut jobs.
“In my ward it’s one of the biggest growing problems.”
In response, Chief Constable Tim Forber said they could be included in the figures.
He added:
“It is a (problem) we’re alive to. We’ve developed a range of tactics to deal with them and at the last count which was at a meeting I was at about four weeks ago was that we had seized 54 of them over the course of the past year.
“They’re becoming a big issue. There’s a need to educate parents about buying kids these things.
“I’m not going to get into the specifics but if they’re above a certain power level, they’re a motor vehicle.
“They need insuring and you’ve got to have the various safety equipment. We are seizing them and we’re going to continue to do that because they are dangerous and the way that they’re driven is dangerous.”
Concerns about e-bikes and e-scooters have been voiced amid a number of serious accidents involving the machines nationally.
Earlier this month, a 13-year-old boy was arrested in connection with a fail-to-stop e-bike crash with a pregnant woman whose baby was born in hospital afterwards and remains in a serious condition.
The crash happened in Poole, Dorset.
Last year, a Sunderland woman in her 80s died in a suspected hit-and-run involving an electric dirtbike.
In December, North Yorkshire Police seized an adapted electric bike capable of travelling at speeds of more than 100mph (160km/h).
A report prepared for this week’s meeting showed that 26 people died on North Yorkshire’s roads in 2024, which is the most recent year for which figures are available for.
This was the lowest number of fatalities for at least a decade.
A total of 435 people were seriously injured in collisions in 2024, which was lower than 2023 but higher than the three previous years.
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