A widower has spoken out after a teenager riding an e-scooter hit and killed his wife, only to avoid jail.
Garry Davis has been left furious that the boy who knocked down and killed his wife of 52 years, Linda Davis, has avoided any time behind bars.
Instead the 14-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was hit with a 12-month referral order and banned from driving for five years.
His parents were also slapped with a six-month parenting order and made to pay the prosecution costs of £85 and a victim surcharge of £26.
District Judge Leo Pyle slammed the tragedy that took place in Rainworth, Nottinghamshire, as "avoidable" and said the e-scooter never should have been on the path.
The 73-year-old lost his wife following the incident at 3.50pm on June 2, last year, when she died six days later in hospital from a severe traumatic brain injury.
He has called on the government to change laws around e-scooters and said the current law "stinks", The Times reported.
Police said she is thought to be the first pedestrian to die in an e-scooter collision in the UK and had been on the pavement at the time when she was hit.
The teen stayed with her and rang the emergency services who rushed Linda to hospital but were sadly unable to save her.
The boy had only had the scooter bought for him, by his father, just six days earlier, the judge told the court.
“In that short time” he had already fractured his thumb whilst riding.
Garry described Linda as “my spark and the centre of my world” as the teen was sentenced at Nottingham youth court after he pleaded guilty to causing death by driving a vehicle otherwise than in accordance with a licence, and to causing death by driving a vehicle while uninsured.
The teen would not have been qualified to drive an e-scooter and had got a provisional licence for the privately owned scooter instead. But it is illegal to ride privately owned e-scooters on public lands, including pavements.
The widower took aim at the government and slammed what he said was a failure to regulate the sale of e-scooters.
“The government’s at fault,” he told the Times. “My wife was walking on the pavement when she got knocked down. What is one supposed to do?”
He also called on the police to make people register the scooters.
Only scooters rented through government-backed schemes can be used on the road and users must be over 16 and have a provisional car licence.
Garry added: “Not long after my wife got knocked over and killed, I was coming up a main road towards an island. Two e-scooters rode straight across the road in front of me. I had to break sharp and hit the kerb. If I’d hit them and knocked them off can you imagine [what the press] would have said — ‘Vengeful husband after e-scooters.’ So I’ve got to be extra careful.”
