The growing number of electric scooters on the streets is accompanied by an increase in traffic accidents involving their drivers. After the young driver of a mobile vehicle died as a result of injuries sustained in an accident in Sarajevo, the issue of their safety and legal regulations has been reopened. State representatives will also discuss this today.
The death of the twenty-four-year-old driver of an electric scooter, who succumbed to his injuries after a traffic accident in Sarajevo, reopened the question of the safety of these vehicles. While electric scooters are becoming more and more common on the streets, citizens are looking for clearer rules for their use.
“Electric scooters are not regulated by the state Law on the Basics of Traffic Safety. As soon as I was appointed in this mandate, I started the procedure to amend that law. Some people in the institutions of the Republic of Srpska claim that topics like electric scooters are a transfer of jurisdiction, which I think is impractical and unreasonable,” said BiH Minister of Communications and Transport Edin Forto.
While waiting for new rules, experts warn that electric scooters are significantly more unstable than bicycles due to their technical characteristics, which is why drivers have to adjust their driving style and speed.
“Drivers who use them must have the feeling that they are driving an unstable means of transport, a means of transport that has a smaller radius of wheels than bicycles have, and therefore adjust their movement on public roads. Precisely because of the instability, and relatively higher speeds, these are the causes of these accidents,” points out Mirzet Sarajlić, a court expert in the traffic profession.
Amendments to the traffic law, which also include the use of mobile phones, will finally be presented to state parliamentarians. The proposed changes define for the first time who can drive electric scooters, where they can move and what equipment will be mandatory.
“What we did in this law, that is, we proposed, is to clearly classify personal electric vehicles in relation to the permitted speed of their movement. The age limit of who can drive is defined, mandatory protective equipment is prescribed, such as helmets and reflective vests, and mandatory registration is introduced,” states SDP BiH representative in PSBiH Rejhana Dervišević.
In addition to the new rules for drivers, the changes would give the police for the first time the ability to control and sanction violations by electric scooter drivers.
“In this sense, we will give instruments to the authorities, the police, to act on the ground, warn first of all, and then sanction drivers to behave responsibly,” explains court expert Mirzet Sarajlić.
While the number of electric mobility scooters on the streets is growing day by day, the rules for driving them are still not as clear as for other road users. This is precisely why the question is being asked more and more often whether the law lags behind the real situation on the streets.
Whether the proposed changes will be enough to reduce the number of accidents, their application will show. Electric scooters are not new in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and past experience clearly shows that a legal framework has long been needed to regulate their use and protect all road users.
