E-scooter crashes into Vauxhall Corsa after being ridden on wrong side of busy Northampton road

An e-scooter crashed into a Vauxhall Corsa after being ridden on the wrong side of a busy Northampton road.

Magistrates heard Kyle Lee Withington, 25, was riding the rented Voi electric scooter in Abington Avenue when it collided with a Vauxhall Corsa in November last year.

Court documents showed Withington, of Leyside Court, Northampton, was convicted in his absence of driving without reasonable consideration for other road users.

He was fined £440 and ordered to pay a further £134 in prosecution costs and a surcharge to fund victim services.

He also had six penalty points added to his licence.

Rented e-scooters, which are paid for by the minute via a smartphone app, were introduced last year in Northampton as an eco-friendly alternative to public transport.

More trials were launched in Kettering, Wellingborough, Rushden and Higham Ferrers in early-2021.

Rented e-scooters are classified as Personal Light Electric Vehicles, which means they can be ridden on public roads — unlike private e-scooters — but are treated as motor vehicles and are subject to all the same legal requirements such as insurance and licensing.

Police admit it took some time for the public to get to grips with the legal requirements of hiring the scooters.

But Voi implemented a number of changes to enhance the safety of the scheme, including visible number plates, a curfew when the scooters will stop working, and a system whereby nuisance riders are unable to access any of the scooters.

PC Dave Lee from Northamptonshire Police’s Safer Roads Team, said: “When these scooters were initially introduced into the town centre, it is fair to say that we were getting quite a lot of reports regarding people misusing them.

“However, since the trial has progressed, we have been able to work with Voi to iron out some of these initial issues and ensure that the right people are using the scooters for the right reasons, as well as ensuring there is a system in place to enforce against nuisance riders.”