In German road traffic, the police recorded 8,260 accidents with standing electric scooters in which people were injured last year. That was 67 percent more than in 2021, said the Federal Statistical Office. Eleven people died in such accidents in 2022, compared to five the year before. 1234 people were seriously injured in 2022, 7651 slightly. More than 80 percent of those involved in the accident were themselves on their scooters, including ten of the eleven fatalities.
Of the 8,260 scooter accidents involving personal injury, 2,994 (36.2 percent) were single-vehicle accidents, so there were no other people involved in the accident. 5 of the 10 killed were killed in single vehicle accidents.
The police registered 8,497 cases of misconduct in accidents involving standing electric scooter drivers. The police records up to three simultaneous misconduct per vehicle driver. In 18.6 percent of the misconduct, the road or sidewalk was used incorrectly, 18 percent of the scooter drivers involved in the accident were under the influence of alcohol. During the same period, 8.2 percent of cyclists who had an accident made this accusation, and 7.8 percent of drivers of mopeds, S-pedelecs and mopeds. 7.2 percent of the scooter riders who had an accident were traveling too fast.
High proportion of young accident victims
In 2022, 40 percent of the e-scooter riders involved in an accident were under the age of 25, and 3.3 percent belonged to the 65+ age group. Among the accident victims who were traveling by bicycle or pedelec, the proportion in this age group was 20 percent. At the same time, 24 percent of the cyclists involved in an accident were not older than 25 years.
65 percent of electric standing scooter accidents involving personal injury occurred in cities with at least 100,000 inhabitants. In the case of accidents with pedelecs or bicycles without an auxiliary motor, the proportion was 28.8 and 44 percent, respectively. 41.4 percent of scooter accidents involving personal injury took place in cities with at least half a million inhabitants. In the case of accidents with pedelecs, the figure was 11.7 percent, and 25.9 percent with bicycles without a motor. Accidents caused by carelessly parked e-scooters are not included.
(Image: Lime)
In total, the police registered 288,000 accidents involving personal injury last year, 2.9 percent of which involved a standing e-scooter driver. In 2021, this share was 2.1 percent. Cyclists were involved in 97,000 accidents, which was 33.7 percent of all these accidents. 470 cyclists were killed, 15,925 were seriously injured, 81,269 slightly injured.
(anw)
