Mother whose son, three, was injured by e-scooter demands crackdown

Mother whose son, three, was badly injured by e-scooter in hit-and-run demands urgent crackdown on the vehicles

  • Milosz Gleba, 3, suffered two broken collarbones after being struck by e-scooter
  • The boy was left in awful pain and even had to be given morphine by paramedics
  • He is now terrified of leaving his house as his mother urges action on -escooters

A mother whose three-year-old son was badly injured when he was run over on the pavement in an e-scooter hit-and-run has called for an urgent clampdown by the authorities.

Milosz Gleba suffered two broken collarbones after being struck from behind at high speed while he was walking with his grandmother.

The rider, described as a woman in her late teens, was thrown from the scooter but jumped back on and sped away. 

The boy was left in awful pain and had to be given morphine by paramedics. Weeks later, his arm is in a sling as he recovers from his injuries and he is now terrified of leaving his house.

Milosz Gleba suffered two broken collarbones after being struck from behind at high speed while he was walking with his grandmother

Police are appealing for witnesses to come forward to trace the rider. The boy’s mother, Natalia Kwasowiec, 33, is calling for an urgent clampdown on the vehicles, which can only legally be used on private land but are becoming more widespread on roads and pavements.

She said: ‘Milosz could have been killed. He could very easily have landed on his head, this woman could have landed on top of him and crushed him. And she didn’t have the decency to check my little boy was okay before she sped off on that awful machine.’

Retail worker Miss Kwasowiec, who lives with Milosz’s father Damon Gleba, 33, said her son was afraid to leave the house for weeks after the incident on April 17.

He had been walking back from the shops near the family home in Feltham, west London, with his grandmother Elzbieta, 53.

Miss Kwasowiec added: ‘Something needs to be done, I’m certain someone else will be hurt or even killed. You see them flying on the roads and pavements at top speeds every day and it will not just be my son. There will be many more horrible crashes like this.’

The rider, described as a woman in her late teens, was thrown from the scooter but jumped back on and sped away

E-scooters have been involved in hundreds of crimes including drive-by shootings, robberies and assaults, the Daily Mail revealed last month. 

In the capital – where e-scooters will go on trial in the coming months – Scotland Yard recorded more than 200 incidents in 2020, with 150 seized. Trials of hire schemes have been permitted in cities across Britain since July last year, but no scheme is currently operating in London.

Pilot projects were launched in Bristol, Bath, Gloucester and Yeovil at the end of 2020, led by Swedish tech brand Voi Technologies. 

The aim is to determine how safe the vehicles are for widespread use as a way of cutting down on car journeys.

But there have been concerns that children have been hiring the scooters despite the legal age of use being 16 or over.

Retailers also reported a boom in sales last year during lockdown. The cost can start at £350 with high-end models reaching nearly £1,000. Their top speeds are capped at 15.5mph but they can be modified to go up to 70mph.

Charity Guide Dogs has called for the sale of e-scooters to be banned, describing their use as ‘a serious safety issue for many people with sight loss’.

David Davies, director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, said they are monitoring trials but retailers needed to be more responsible when checking the buyers’ age.

Source: Read Full Article

Previous post Former veterans minister Johnny Mercer slams Government plans
Next post Italy plans reopening for tourists this month, prime minister says