A 14-year-old girl died after falling from her e-scooter and under the wheels of a mini-bus, an inquest has heard, amid warnings of a rising death rate among users of the electric devices.
Fatima Abukar was riding the battery-powered e-scooter along Green Street in East Ham when she lost control while alongside a mini-bus.
An off-duty medic was among those who tried to save the schoolgirl, but she died from a head injury and blunt force trauma following the crash, on March 21.
Graeme Irvine, senior coroner in east London, presided over Fatima’s inquest last week, and has now issued a serious of safety warnings about e-scooters.
He said the inquest heard of eight e-scooters fatalities in London since 2019, among a total of 31 nationally.
“At the time of her death, Ms Abukar was riding a privately owned e-scooter on a public highway”, he said, in a report calling for action to prevent future deaths.
“Despite the ubiquity of such devices on London’s stress, riding them on public roads is unlawful.”
The coroner pointed out that the Met Police seized around 4,000 unlawful e-scooters in 2021, but that figure has dipped to 1,100 this year after a change in enforcement policy.
“An inverse correlation exists between the rate of legal enforcement and the rate of deaths caused by e-scooters”, he said, highlighting that twice as many deaths from e-scooter use happened in the first half of 2022 compared with the first half of 2021.
The coroner added: “Ms Abukar died due to traumatic head injuries. Riders of legally authorised scooters are not required to wear head protection.
“Some manufacturers and retailers of e-scooters in England and Wales provide consumers with written warnings about the illegal use of e-scooters, others do not.
“Where such warnings are present, often they are not prominent.”
The crash happened at around 1.30pm, when Fatima was travelling along Green Street at speeds of no more than 11mph while not wearing any safety equipment.
“Ms Abukar left the pavement and entered the northbound carriageway of the road, against the flow of traffic . Ms Abukar bore left, over the central markings of the road, and joined the southbound carriageway travelling alongside a mini-bus.
“The e-scooter struck the off-side of the minibus, Ms Abukar lost control and fell beneath the wheels of the minibus.”
After the fatal crash, a friends of Fatima’s paid tribute to her as a “a little rainbow of colour and fun”, with flowers laid at the scene.
“I’ve spoken to the mum, she is devastated”, added the friend.
“She was just a young kid finding herself in the world. She has two brothers and two sisters. She loved music she was cheeky, she was fun.”
The coroner’s report has been sent to the Met Police, Transport for London, the Mayor of London, Transport Secretary Mark Harper, Home Secretary Suella Braverman, and a major retailer of e-scooters.
