Sarah Tiffen says putting electric vehicles in the hands of children is asking for trouble. Photo: Camille Whitehead/Western Riverina Arts.
Children should be riding bikes, getting exercise and learning to navigate the world around them – not racing around skate parks and streets on powerful electric vehicles they are too young to legally ride.
What I witnessed at the Leeton Skate Park has convinced me parents and the community need to take this issue seriously before someone is seriously hurt.
On a wintry Saturday afternoon in Leeton, I went to the Leeton Skate Park with my 10-year-old nephew.
He rides a little ‘analogue’ scooter, and trundled around the ramps and bowls with a couple of other little children.
More children came as the afternoon went on. Some very little, and very clever, scooter riders – four- and five-year-olds – were practising their skills among a range of other, mainly scooter-riding children, mostly under 13 years old.
Then something happened that I had not seen before, having not been to the skate park for quite a while.
A little child arrived down the footpath from the ovals on a big electric scooter.
Very big, very fast and very heavy – it far outsized him, and he barely had control of it.
Then he started riding that big, heavy electric scooter on the skate park ramps, amid the other little children on their little leg-pushed scooters.
A couple of times he barely had control, and other kids barely escaped being collected by the big scooter.
It’s still illegal to ride e-scooters on public roads in NSW. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
Then around five or six teenage kids arrived, all on electric scooters.
All going very fast. All gathering at the skate park to ride on the skate park and around it on the surrounding footpaths.
They were later joined by two young fellows, around 12 years old, on huge, heavy, motorised push-bikes — very fast, and no different to motorbikes.
Soon it was time for us to go, and we left, but I felt great unease at witnessing all those motorised vehicles in the hands of minors, riding around and close to lots of little children who would be no match for a machine like that if they got hit.
There were a couple of parents present in the area, but mostly everyone was unsupervised.
Later, we went to Luke’s for some fish and chips, and some of the young boys from the skate park were dinking each other on electric scooters up the main street.
Crossing roads. Riding very close to cars and pedestrians. Going fast. Some without helmets.
I did some research when I got home, and realised my unease was well founded.
This situation is not legal, and it is not good for the kids of Leeton.
We are basically putting motorbikes and cars in the hands of children and sending them off unsupervised to cross roads and navigate traffic, putting themselves, other children and pedestrians at risk.
This has to stop.
Childhood is precious.
Kids should be riding push-bikes, pushing the pedals with their legs, getting exercise, not going too fast, and certainly not riding electric vehicles on the skate park.
Parents — we must not give our children these vehicles that could so easily become weapons.
Imagine if your child fell off going fast and hit a car. Imagine if they hit their head.
Imagine if your child hit another little child at the skate park.
These are not toys. They are heavy, fast, motorised vehicles, and children are not equipped to safely handle them in busy public spaces or around smaller children.
We need parents to understand the risks and we need our community to start talking about this before a serious accident happens.
I will be working to put regulations in place so that we don’t have kids on e-scooters and e-bikes in Leeton.
Sarah Tiffen is a Leeton councillor. She encourages you to get in touch if you would like to share your thoughts: [email protected]
