‘Operator error’: Geraldton man Stuart Wise warns of dangers of e-scooter misuse after breaking leg

A Geraldton man has warned about the dangers of e-scooter use after he was injured in a collision in early December. Stuart Wise broke his leg in three places after colliding with a vehicle on Brand Highway while riding a rented e-scooter. He said he was “100 per cent at fault” and isn’t blaming anyone else. “I was sober, I was just on the way to the shops,” he said. “I wasn’t doing anything silly.” The accident left him in hospital for eight days and he has now begun the long road to recovery. “I will never ever get on an e-scooter again,” he said. He frequently sees locals travelling with up to three people on an e-scooter, often at high speeds. “I think it all comes down to operator error, and some people are responsible and some people aren’t,” Mr Wise said. The future of an e-scooter hire service in Geraldton is up in the air, with the local council set to review operator Beam’s licence, which expires this month. The decision also comes in the wake of the Christmas Eve death of a 37-year-old man who died after falling off a rented Beam e-scooter on a footpath near Brand Highway in Tarcoola Beach in the early hours of December 24. Beam specifies in their app that riders must obey road rules, including being under the legal blood alcohol limit and wearing a helmet. The enforcement of these rules is under the jurisdiction of WA Police. There is limited data available for injuries caused by e-rideables and a recent parliamentary inquiry found that injuries were likely under-reported. The report, tabled in early December, found that the lack of information made it difficult to assess the risks of e-scooter use. “The absence of reliable and comprehensive data hinders the ability to accurately identify priority areas for safety interventions,” the report states, and offers several recommendations for uniform information gathering. Eight deaths in WA last year were the result of e-scooter use. Unlike private e-rideables, Beam’s e-scooters are only allowed to reach a maximum speed of 25km/h or 10km/h in certain “slow zones”. “I think there should be more restrictions on where you can actually ride your e-scooter,” Mr Wise said. “I see a lot of people riding on the road, you shouldn’t be riding on the road. There’s no footpaths, your e-scooter stops.” “(Rental) e-scooters only go to 25km/h, you can buy a scooter online that can do about 50 or 60km/h. That’s way too fast.” The City of Greater Geraldton council will be discussing this month whether to extended Beam’s contract with the city. The rental e-scooters have been in use in Geraldton since September 2022. Two-thirds of those surveyed about the hire service after a 15-month trial supported e-scooters in the city.