High-powered electric vehicles: Col Blanch calls for crackdown on importation of unlicensed vehicles

WA’s top cop has called for restricted access to high-powered electric vehicles as pressure mounts on the Federal Government to crack down on their importation. Police commissioner Col Blanch told a Parliamentary inquiry into the safety and regulation of e-rideables on Wednesday that he didn’t want high-powered e-scooters and motorbikes on the streets unless they were licensed. “You may put restrictions, labels and tamper proof things for people who are doing the right thing . . . but if you can get it on eBay and have a 100 km/h vehicle posted to your address, you bypass that whole system,” the commissioner said. “To certify retailers overseas, which we can’t do and don’t have the jurisdiction, it’s the import streams where that must be stopped, at a Federal level.” The e-rideable inquiry was expanded to probe electric motorbikes — which are currently subject to the same laws as typical road bikes — after a 59-year-old nurse was killed when hit by one in Edgewater last month. Police allege a 17-year-old boy, who was fleeing police, struck the woman in a park while riding an unregistered electric dirtbike which is advertised as being capable of reaching 110km/h. “In no shape way or form is it an e-rideable — It is a straight up vehicle,” Mr Blanch said. “I don’t think young people should be able to walk in (to a store) without licensing it and purchase it, anywhere, which they are allowed to do today because they (claim they) may use it off road, they may use it on their own property. “The reality was that’s not where it was used, and that’s not its (intended use).” Mr Blanch said the “e-rideable phenomena of recent times” was pushing retailers and overseas manufactures to sell devices which could be modified to travel faster than legal limits. “The cause should be addressed, and the manufacturers, the importers and the retailers need to be very clear about what you can and can’t sell, what you can and can’t import, because they should not be available, particularly to young people who are almost certainly going to modify it.” Mr Blanch was joined at the inquiry by WA Police executive manager of road policing research and projects, Paul Simpson, who said officers were using scales to determine if e-scooters exceeded the 25kg weight limit, a method described as an “interim” approach until technology better develops. Mr Simpson said a tamper-proof label which could be scanned to assess the legal compliance of a device could free up officers trying to determine which devices were legal. Also addressing the inquiry on Wednesday was Royal Perth Hospital’s head of trauma professor Dieter Weber, who said current reporting methods were failing to capture the full impact e-rideable’s were having on the community. He said this was mostly due to difficulties in obtaining information from injured patients and minor incidents going under the radar. “There’s very little protective equipment around the patient on an e-bike . . . it’s probably worse for the same kinetic force compared to a car crash. We’re afforded more protection devices inside the cabin,” he said. “The body is being exposed to a major force and then sort of the injuries that we see are essentially the same. Professor Weber said injuries seen in hospital included “traumatic brain injuries and spinal cord injuries” with some victims dying or being forced into 24/7 care as a result. State trauma director Stephen Dunjey added that men and children accounted for the majority of patients seriously injured in e-rideable crashes — seen daily by hospital staff. In road safety commissioner Adrian Warner’s submission on Wednesday, he said there were readily-available instructions on how to modify e-scooters on YouTube. “On reflection, we can do more in terms of having more information out there in blunt terms around the current rules,” he said. Mr Warner said a new “mid-tier” licensing system, similar to that required for a moped, could assist in the regulation of higher powered e-rideables which could allow for their use on roads instead of shared paths. “Then you’ve got, regardless of where you draw that line, unlicensed trail bikes being used in public spaces. We don’t license them because they’re intended to be used off road in designated areas.” Mr Warner said the Road Safety Commission was working, with support of the State government, to expand the number of roads e-rideable users could travel on after their own inquiry earlier this year. “We’re saying we want to create more choices for people, particularly in the CBD, where there is a heightened risk on busy, busy footpaths with pedestrians. So if we give people a choice to get on low speed roads where they’re not competing with high speed traffic, then I think that’s, on balance, a good option. Mr Warner said he hoped the amendments to the current regulations would be completed by summer. The parliamentary inquiry was launched following the death of father Thanh Phan earlier this year, who died after he was hit by a hire-scooter allegedly driven by an intoxicated backpacker in the Perth CBD.

High-powered electric vehicles: Col Blanch calls for crackdown on importation of unlicensed vehicles

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