Electric scooters, a public danger?

Scooters, especially electric ones, allow for cheap, fast and easy travel

Roxana Vasile, 01.10.2025, 13:55

A teenager riding an electric scooter recently died in Romania after losing his balance and falling onto the road. A 3-year-old child was violently hit by an electric scooter while he was with his parents in the park. The young man who caused the accident continued his journey as if nothing had happened. Another 12-year-old child fell off a bridge with his electric scooter, and a man went into a coma after falling off his scooter – he was not wearing a helmet. Finally, a woman lost her life after being violently hit by an electric scooter at a pedestrian crossing, whose driver ran a red light…

Scooters, especially electric ones, allow for cheap, fast and easy travel, which is why their number has increased greatly in recent years in Romania. However, according to the police, the number of scooter accidents has also exploded, with over 1,500 occurring in the first seven months of 2025, compared to just over 1,300 in the entire previous year. 80% were the fault of the scooter drivers – they either injured themselves or injured others.

In 2024, 9 people died in scooter accidents, and in the first seven months of 2025, 7 died. As for the injured, 1,618 were added to the 1,353 last year in the first seven months of this year. The figures are even more alarming if compared to those at the beginning of 2020, when the project was proposed that minimally regulated the circulation of electric scooters in the country. Thus, between 2016 and 2019, so in a three-year period, 192 road accidents involving electric scooter drivers were recorded in Romania, resulting in a single death, 37 seriously injured and 156 slightly injured.

What are the causes of so many accidents in which scooter drivers are currently involved? In short, Cătălin Codescu, president of the Association of Road Accident Victims, says: ʺThe problem is the lack of protective equipment. The problem is related to the failure to comply with traffic rules, to the fact that they use the roadway where they see fit, which is very serious, because they (editor’s note: scooters) being very, very mobile, are used both in pedestrian areas and in areas where vehicles are moving, and come into conflict with pedestrians and vehicles. Therefore, the risk is high both for pedestrians and for accidents with vehicles.ʺ

Rally driver, currently an expert in defensive driving, Titi Aur believes that there is no road safety in Romania. The electric scooter – he says – along with the mobile phone, two extraordinary technical developments, only increase the number of causes of accidents with deaths and serious injuries: the mobile phone through the distractions it subjects road users to, and the electric scooter through the fact that it is almost unregulated. In the view of the president of the Association of Road Accident Victims, Cătălin Codescu, there are two major vulnerabilities related to scooters and scooter riders:

ʺOn the one hand, the fact that no one requires them to have at least a course in road legislation. Very many of them do not have a license or are even minors, so they are people between 14 and 18 years old who do not know the road legislation, or adults who do not have a driver’s license. And, then, it is in vain that we try to correct, to improve the legislative framework for this category of road users, if they do not know the legislation. Individuals who use these road vehicles should have notions about road legislation! And the second very important issue is an insurance policy, at least a motor third party liability insurance policy that would protect third parties who may be injured in such events. Ideally, there would be a mix of insurance – an accident insurance for them, for their own injury, and a third party liability insurance policy.ʺ

According to the legislation in force in Romania, electric scooters can only be driven by people with a minimum age of 14. Between 14 and 16 years, users are required to wear a protective helmet. After 16 years, a helmet is only recommended. It is also prohibited to transport passengers – the electric scooter is intended for one person only. Scooters must circulate only on bicycle paths, and in the absence of such paths, on the right side of the road, if the maximum speed of the scooter does not exceed 25 km/h. At the same time, it is prohibited to circulate on the sidewalk, if there is no specially arranged path. How many of these rules are respected? Too few!

There are many people who get on an electric scooter without a helmet or other type of protection. Which, although they should go at a maximum of 25 km/h, in reality circulate at much higher speeds. They suddenly change direction, without proper insurance beforehand, or circulate chaotically not only on the road, but also on the sidewalks. The Mayor of Buzău (south), Constantin Toma, reviews the measures taken in his city to reduce accidents caused by electric scooters:

ʺWe have made the decision following several accidents – about two years ago, we even had a fatal accident in one of the parks of Buzău – to ban, for now, on Saturdays and Sundays, riding these scooters in parks. We are now working on a draft Local Council Decision that will enter into public debate and which, in October, we will approve, through which we will ban access to scooters on all days, in all parks and in the central and pedestrian area. It’s good for people to go to work by scooter, and we have a lot of people from Buzau who do this, but let’s not get to this daredevil thing, in the end, that all children, including those under 14, have a scooter, and 18-year-olds must go to school by personal car or their parents. You’re a child and you don’t have a scooter, you’re 18 and you don’t have a car, you’re already a pariah! Not to mention these G3, G4 scooters … I don’t know … that can reach 80 km/h. They are a real public danger!ʺ

There are no clear statistics on how many of the electric scooters that cause accidents are private property and how many are for rent. But, because of the danger they can pose, some large cities – Brașov, Timișoara, Constanța or, recently, Piatra Neamț – have decided to ban those that can be rented. It’s the only measure taken!