I was looking over German public TV news today, and this odd statistic stood out. Up until 2019....E-scooters hadn't really been a factor on German streets. Now they are. However, cities are now reviewing data collections and some things have occurred that might surprise you.
So ARD (Channel One, public German TV) told this story.
The cops in Koln did a quarterly analysis report (ending mid-November).
104 E-scooter accidents were reported over that 90-day period. Of that group....24 were categorized as 'severe' (meaning that they were transported by ambulance). But out of that group (the 104)....88 were the drivers, and the other 16 were 'passengers'.
If you go and kinda look over the rule-book, even by the companies who manufacture the E-scooters....the majority of them strongly recommend just one person on the scooter.
But the cops also note something unique about the 104 accidents....roughly a third of them were drunken drivers.
Yep, they were capable of getting their handy out....doing the 'swipe' to authorize the E-scooter, and then taking off down the street.
The thing you'd start to worry about.....as a driver in mid-town areas (even Wiesbaden), you might be cruising along at 30 kph, and suddenly have some drunk 20-year old gal coming out of nowhere, and you end up severely injuring the dimwit drunk.
The odds of some special 'commission' existing by the end of 2020, and recommending all E-scooters being taken off German streets? I'd actually give it a 50-50 chance at this point.
No comments:
Post a Comment