In Limerick city, gardaí have introduced a fresh approach to monitoring electric scooters, reports RTE.
They are now using portable dynamometers—compact, treadmill-like devices about 1.5 metres long—that determine how fast e-scooters can go. The legal speed cap is 20km/h.
During a recent operation on Bishop’s Quay, officers from the Garda Roads Policing Unit stopped a rider and tested her e-scooter on one of the new devices, reports RTE.
Within moments, her scooter was found to meet the legal standards, allowing her to continue on her journey.
But a larger model failed the check and was confiscated.
“It goes up to 47km/h,” said Garda Philip Ellard, who conducted the test, reports RTE.
“It’s very fast. If you had an accident on this, you’d have serious injuries. It’s like being on the equivalent of a small moped. The limit is 20 km/h, anything that exceeds that can’t be used on any roads for any reason,” he said, reports RTE.
Inspector Padraig Sutton, who leads the checkpoint, shared his concerns.
“There’s lots of e-scooters around Limerick city. Once they conform to the rules, they’re a very useful tool for moving around. However, there are quite a number of people who use illegal ones,” he said, reports RTE.
“Unfortunately in this jurisdiction, we’ve had serious injury collisions and also fatalities as a result of e-scooter use,” he said, reports RTE.
At present, the Garda Roads Policing Unit has four dynamometers in operation nationwide, which they’ve been using for the past two months.
“It’s been an excellent device for us, because prior to now, it’s very difficult for us to estimate with any accuracy the speed of in of an e-bike or an e-scooter, other than actually using a laser speed device,” reports RTE.
“So, it’s a very useful and portable machine that we’re getting good use of here in the Limerick division”, he said, r r
“Officers can seize an e-scooter and they can bring it back to the station where we can test it, or we can take it out to different parts of the county and set it up and have a mobile checkpoint and target those who are using our roads illegally with devices that really shouldn’t be on roads,” Inspector Sutton said, reports RTE.
Since the enforcement of updated regulations, there has been a sharp rise in the number of e-scooters taken by gardaí—from 26 last year to 130 so far this year within just five months.
In addition, 406 fines have been issued under the new laws.
These rules now penalise users €50 for carrying passengers or goods, riding on footpaths, using a phone while riding, and other infractions under Fixed Charge Notices (FCNs), reports RTE.
Gardaí now face the task of managing the surge in e-scooter numbers on roads.
The Road Safety Authority (RSA) estimates that usage will double over the next year. Currently, about 4% of adults are believed to own one.
“It can be a very good way of travelling, particularly around cities. However, we’re also seeing a lot of incidents, crashes and collisions,” said David Martin from the RSA, reports RTE.
“They’re growing in popularity. But clearly, there’s an issue in terms of safety, and it’s something that we are concerned about,” he said, adding that the research the RSA commissioned indicates that one in four have had a crash in the last 12 months, and one in three have had a near miss, reports RTE.
The RSA, he noted, is in full support of the deployment of the new testing devices.
“We welcome this initiative today and think it’s a tremendous development.
“The speed limit of 20 km/h – very difficult for the gardaí to have checked that in the past. So, this new development really is welcome,” he said, reports RTE.
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