The Beryl e-Scooters only arrived on the Isle of Wight on Thursday, but are already being misused by youths – including one which was taken up the dual carriageway.
Police have issued a ‘blunt’ warning about the potential consequences of using the electric scooters in such a manner.
Changes have been made to the law so that e-Scooters that are hired are legal to use in a public place, with some exceptions. 25 scooters are now situated in and around Newport as part of a Government-approved 12-month trial, which will expand to Ryde and Cowes in due course.
Photographs have been shared on social media in the past couple of days showing one of the e-Scooters being used on the dual carriageway, with others simply dumped in open spaces.
In response to the rather unusual Policing issue, officers have taken to the Isle of Wight Police Facebook Page to make clear the dos and don’ts…
– Personal e-scooters can not be used in a public place. This is illegal, they can only be used on private land
Privately owned e-Scooters being used in a public place could be seized, with a recovery and storage fee charged. Furthermore, the rider may receive points on their licence and a fine for driving otherwise in accordance with a licence. In addition, the rider could receive 6 points and a £300 fine for driving without insurance. There are other issues including driving with no MOT and tax.
– Hiring an e-scooter from Beryl is legal but there are some important things to know
An e-scooter is classified as a Personal Light Electric Vehicle (PLEVs). You can use it on a road or a designated cycle lane, but you cannot ride it on a pavement, use it on the dual carriageway or use it for ‘fun’ such as doing stunts.
The hired e-Scooters can only be used by 1 rider at a time – no passengers. The rider must have signed up to the Beryl app which will verify their age and that they hold a provisional drivers licence.
The same rules apply as driving a car; you cannot drink or drug drive nor use your mobile phone and riders must follow the Highway code, which includes not going the wrong way down one-way streets or through no entry signs.
Doing any of these things makes you liable for arrest, a fine, points on your driver’s licence and/or a court appearance.
Please don’t mention housing developments
You do realise that thousands of extra people here on tiny narrow, badly lit roads will make it all so much worse. IF you don’t, YOU soon WILL>
Do me a favour, island drivers are the worst in the country. Some better drivers would be a bonus.
Perhaps the Beryl app should include an intelligence test as well as age and licence checks.
perhaps the council officials who agreed to this trial should have an intelligence or “common sense” test, resulting in dismissal if failed.
Today witnessed 2 older youths, riding down the high street of newport trying to pull stunts amongst the other traffic, 1- they were watching each other not the pedestrians and other road users endangering innocent people 2 – went straight through the red lights, no respect for the law.
The police have an almost impossible task to control the use of these e-scooters, there are countless cycles on our roads daily being used without lights, both on and off the roads, and now add to the mix e-scooters.
There are not enough police to keep the Island safe, and now we add the menace of e-scooters.
Is there any degree of commonsense left? I fear not!
There are countless uninsured drivers , drivers on provisional licenses or no licenses driving unroadworthy dangerous cars, let’s concentrate on the biggest killers on the roads first eh?
The joke is all the liberal s nowflakes imagine smiling NHS staff traveling to work and saving the planet.
The truth is just low life, running drugs or causing misery for the elderly.
Yet those rose tints are so strong a hue, they still won’t see their flawed thinking, EVER
The police should be able to use CCTV and the Beryl app data to link users to the incidents, they do it for motorists, that would catch those who have had their driving licence lent, borrowed or stolen to be used for renting a scooter.
The police are not monitoring the CCTV all the time, they use it to monitor real time situations; island roads have only one person monitoring the CCTV system as the council withdrew several permanent island road staff on the advice of that expensive ‘consultant’ they hired.
……. and who is surprised!!!
Take the bloody things away kids are using them in Cowes and it must be their parents buying them as you need a licence. If it’s not the parents then the manufacturers should be fined heavily
The ‘usual’ lot use them in Cities for drug running as can escape easily down narrow passages and can lob them in a garden if needed to retrieve later, which is hard to do with a car.
Things are completely out of control, as is usual for our country. To start with ALL cyclists, and that includes you, should be taxed, plated, insured and equivalent to MOT. ALL riders must be licenced and have been tested. There will be NO riding in pedistrian areas and pavements. The riders will conform to all the rules of the road. There should be strict rules applicable to any device powered by any mechanical or electrical device, however many wheels it has and whether it is sat on or stood on, or even knelt on. For too long now too many have been getting away with too much. Rant over.
Let’s apply all of your rules above to the biggest killers on the roads first,cars,vans and lorries. Then we can deal with the minorities.
What a fool. You do realise nobody pays a tax to use the road. You pay VED due to the damage to the envrionment from engines. Why would a bicycle pay that?
Google Vehicle Excise Tax and then say “Fed Up” is a fool. Every road user should pay Insurance and be subject to regulation. We saw a pedestrian lose their life in Sandown in recent years due to a drunk on an invalid vehicle…..something needs to be sorted out.
This trial is a failure which anyone could see, IF they had any intellect. For the roads are busy, ill lit, ill repaired, we have many elderly, and too many vile youths who use these to intimidate others and for likely drug running as we see in London etc.
Our young, and even not so young population is not decent enough to be trusted with such, and, as we do with children who are not yet wise enough, we take things that WE know will be a danger to them.
That is what will have to happen with these scooters.
Hardly practical in the wet, the cold. Save them for sunny lands where their youth still has hope.
spot on amanda. London is plagued with such, snatching bags, necklaces, wallets, credit cards and phones and then disappearing. We have the scooters and soon to have the usual riders of such when the thousands of homes being built are filled with such UK diversity.
The Isle won’t know what hit it
WOW, you guys have a weird idea about London – Lived here for 15 years and my drug dealers all drive cars.
And as for London being plagued as you claim Wag Wan… it’s called several million people living in 1 city, which if you broke it down per head of population, yes crime is higher than the island but hardly the wild west. LOL. Look at all the paedos, drug, knife carrying, driving, drinking related instances, issues and crimes on the island.
Yours are far easier to recognise, yet, ironically much harder to identify.
Whilst crime is rising as more homes are built and filled with over spill the masse building planned will create a London crime growth but without the jobs, the wages, the social life.
Ruination of this Isle.
haha you clown. I go to uni in London and can assure you no drug dealers use these to deliver drugs haha and I am sure none will use them on the Island! – Then again people on the island are not as street smart compared to the rest of the UK!
Just seen someone someone’s shopping flung across the road because a youth rode on one on the pavement around a corner. This is going to last long!
ye most probably will council will say thats a great idear look at the floating turd..
Well IOW council heading for lots of compensation claims and damages as clearly these are being ridden by under 16s, two in Medina sch uniform by Sainsbury’s, another group of 4 racing up and down Quay then in road outside Little London car stopping cars , complete with drug carrying man bags. How come they don’t have reg numbers. Prove age on app , rubbish how many under 13yrs on Facebook ?. When can I drive my car on pavement with no licence, MOT,tax etc.
It is a shame but I don’t think it is the Council’s fault! There are in lots of cities across the UK with no problem – It is just the Island is so backwards and a select few ruin it for everyone. My question is why parents are allowing it knowing they are doing it illegally. Shame ‘youths’ and the older generation on the island lack common sense.
I think we could all see this happening and someone will end up losing their life before the idiots who agreed to this trial realise and scrap it.
What did the council truly think would happen?I’ve just downloaded the beryl app which has a map that tells you where the scooters are located and how many are available, they are all out being used except for 6 which are available meaning the rest are more than likely being misused around newport right now.
I’ve witnessed youths on these scooters and they are extremely dangerous the way they ride them on the road and the pavements and everywhere else they choose to ride them.
The scooters would be a good idea if they weren’t so freely available, too get a provisional driver’s license all you have to do is pay the fee on the application and wait for the card to arrive no knowledge or competency test nothing, for a 50cc or 125cc bike or scooter however you have to not only have a provisional license but undertake a CBT training course then when on a bike or scooter display learner plates and wear the necessary protection and obviously pass a theory test and practical test for a car.
My point is if you make such vehicles so freely available to youths they will almost definately be misused, why is it that it’s ok for them to be used on the road with no training, no basic safety knowledge or understanding or awareness of the highway code? Who ever makes this crap up is unbelievable.
And no doubt that there are youths using the scooters on a friends or dare say it parents license aswell so add unlicensed riders to the mix.
Make them only available to adults on a full driver’s license end of.
Bloody Stupid idea from the start.
The youth do just what they want as ‘they’ know that nothing will happen to them.
So expect it all to get far far worse as huge amounts of similar ilk move here once the thousands of extra homes are built
Vote this inept council OUT
Another poor idea, by the fool known as Boris. Not legal yet and already dangerous situations caused by ignorant users. Pedestrians will be injured and cars damaged. Get a dash cam to dispute the fraudulent claims.
So if you hire one you can ride in public places, but not if you own one. Be interesting to see how that would stand up in court. It would also be interesting to hear the police view on the whole thing , as they will no doubt spend all their time policing it, and how many so far have been ” nicked” for riding on public roads , as there have been plenty flying around Newport for quite a while.
We need those big northern cops you see on ” police interceptors”, they don’t take prisoners.
Trust cop’s to pay more attention to these than ped0’s and rapists! If only they put in the same effort!
If the reports of misuse of the Beryl end scooters being abandoned outside docking areas are correct and if the system of hire is secure then the person hiring the bike would be traceable ?
I suspect the system is not secure enough to prevent misuse by tech savvy people.
Erm what about The mobility scooters as they are everywhere and they should be insured and taxed Ive even seen one on the M25 and they are constantly on the roads Ive even seen them run into people on the pavement! so if you moan about these small scooters I suggest you look equally a the mobility ones as well