2023-08-15 10:31:39
In 2016, the General Directorate of Traffic already detected the need to regular about electric scooters and he prepared a circular in which he urged the municipalities to normalize their transit. Now, seven years later, these personal mobility vehicles have multiplied by the cities, which adapt and reorganize lanes due to the popularity of their use, and The DGT still leaves the consistories to carry out the regulation in their own ordinances specific. Different Local Police of the Region, consulted by this newspaper, agree that, in the Community of Murcia, This regulation is in its infancywhich is a headache when it comes to establishing which behaviors are sanctioned and which are not.
There is no specific ordinance on personal mobility vehicles (VMP) in municipalities such as Eagles, San Pedro del Pinatar, Beniel, Molina de Segura or Las Torres de Cotillas. In San Javier, the City Council Plenary approved in April the Mobility Ordinance, which regulates the use of electric scooters, but allegations were made and it is not yet in force. The document established fines of up to 500 euros if three people are caught traveling in the same VMP80 euros if there are two of you.
The Murcia City Council wants to have the regulation on personal mobility vehicles ready before 2024
In Cieza, for example, there was a draft of the traffic ordinance, but, as a new government came out of the municipal elections on May 28, its implementation was stopped. After the summer, already in September, the idea is to maintain a meeting in order to update it and get it running. A similar situation has occurred in the consistories that, after the municipal elections, changed their political color.
At the national level, from the DGT they announced at the beginning of the summer that they were working to establish the mandatory nature of the helmet and insurance and the minimum age of 16 years to be able to use an electric scooter. Likewise, it is on the table that drivers have mandatory insurance, which for now is only necessary in rental VMPs. Right now it is not essential. Neither the insurance nor even the helmet.
More and more used, more and more stolen
Every day more abundant, every day more used, every day more attractive for the friends of others, who see in the electric scooter a juicy and, on many occasions, simple objective, alert from the Local Police and the National Police.
The body advises users to write down the serial number when they purchase their VMP and, if it is stolen, provide it at the time of reporting. I also suggest using locks, alarms and even installing a GPS to alert you of your location in case of theft. Remove the battery, one of the most coveted items to steal.
Yes, there are specific ordinances on electric scooters in two of the three main cities in the Region, specifically in Cartagena and Lorca.
In the case of the City of the Sun, the text entered into force in June, with the previous socialist government team in office. in the ordinance insurance is not requiredas long as national regulations do not consider it mandatory.
In Lorca, sanctions of three types are set: light, serious and very serious.. The first, sanctioned with 100 euros, will be transporting more people than authorized in a VMP, not wearing an approved helmet with light devices, driving without maintaining a minimum distance of one meter from pedestrians or driving barefoot. The serious ones, penalized with 200 euros, if you drive in breach of the established rules on speed limitationsnegligently, being under 15 years of age or with headphones on.
At the end of last month, a 19-year-old girl ended up in the ICU after crashing her VMP in La Manga
As for the very serious, fined 600 euroswill be circulate exceeding by more than 50 percent the maximum authorized speed, recklessly, drugged or drunk.
In the port city, in 2022 the final approval of the municipal ordinance regulating personal mobility vehicles in the municipal area took place. As in Lorca, the norm includes as The use of a helmet and insurance is highly recommended of civil liability, but it does not regulate it expressly as there is still no higher standard that covers it.
In Cartagena, those who fail to comply with the obligation to circulate on the bike lane, when it is integrated into the road, are fined 200 euros. If they do not exist, they will always do so on the right flank of the asphalt. The helmet is not mandatory either..
In the capital of the Region, as municipal sources explained on Monday, the PP (in the previous stage of Ballesta, truncated by the motion of censure) began to prepare regulations that would regulate the use of VMP, but Serrano’s arrival at the Glorieta frustrated the idea. Now, with the popular Ballesta back in the Mayor’s Office, the government team pointed out that The idea is to resume the drafting of the ordinance and have it ready before the end of the year 2023.
young and sinister
The vast majority of accidents involving scooters in the Region have something in common: the vehicle is driven by a young person, often a minor, who circulates without insurance and whose parents are subsidiarily responsible for the damage caused, indicate local police officers of the Community.
As for the causes that make road accidents possible with personal mobility vehicles, many times speeding is what causes users to crash. And it is that young people, especially adolescents, often take one of these vehicles without knowing what they are up to and drive on sidewalks or pedestrian areas. «There are more and more accidents, since its use is growing a lot», point out the municipal authorities, who agree that many scooter users are unaware of the regulations in this regard. They jump traffic lights, They don’t respect signs and go on the sidewalk because “they don’t know they can’t go”they maintain.
A young woman falls from her scooter in Murcia and a witness steals it instead of helping her
“The infraction more frequent is not use of proper lanes and driving on sidewalks and pedestrian areas, and at night the lack of lighting, ”Antonio Saturno, an inspector of the Murcia Local Police, explained to this newsroom in July.
At the end of last July, a 19-year-old girl was seriously injured when she fell from her scooter at kilometer 4 of the Gran Vía de La Manga, near the Zoco. several people found it on the ground, unconscious and with a gap in the head. He ended up in intensive care.
In May of this year, a similar event occurred in Cieza: a woman, this time 53 years old, she fell off the scooter while driving on the N-301, hit her head and was taken to the ICU of the Virgin of the Arrixaca.
The Prosecutor’s Office wants to regulate them
«With a scooter you can even kill and, of course, injure»pointed the superior prosecutor, José Luis Díaz Manzanera, in the presentation of the 2022 Report of his department, where he had words for these vehicles and their danger. It should be remembered that Murcia was the first autonomous community in which proceedings were opened for driving these controversial vehicles, which in recent years (and growing) have been imposed on the streets of all cities.
The superior prosecutor warns of the danger of scooters: “You can even kill”
Specifically, the Prosecutor’s Office opened proceedings in six cases for driving these vehicles without a permit, although five were archived and the other ended with the filing of a complaint.
And it is that some are like a moped, with up to 49 cubic centimeters that allow reach 45 kilometers per hour. Hence the risk of going down the sidewalk with them: “They take an older person or a child ahead and kill him,” the police warn.
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