There are two things that should be banned but won’t be until there is a major catastrophe: vaping and electric scooters.
I have seen someone doing both – vaping and riding – at once, which was really scary.
Now the vaping thing is probably a bit like drinking alcohol: you are just harming yourself, unless of course it has an impact on others.
I don’t like the vaping thing but I guess we all have vices.
Electric scooters, however, are way out of control.
Just the other day, I was on my motorbike and got eyeballed by two circa 15-year-olds at the shopping centre car park after dark.
They were sitting on milk crates on scooters, in T-shirts and thongs.
Admittedly, I smiled and shook my head as I passed them.
About a minute down the road, I was sitting on 60km/h when I saw a small headlight behind me rapidly approaching.
It came up beside me and, you guessed it – milk crate boy.
I yelled out ‘How fast does that thing go?’ and he replied ‘Ninety’ and then turned around and left.
I guess he was just showing me what he could do, but, wow!
What if he fell off or, even worse, got hit by a car?
Now this is the case with a lot of them: young kids riding way too fast on bike paths and roads, some with no lights and a lot with a sh*t attitude about it being everyone else’s job to dodge them.
Older people, small children and dogs are definitely in mortal danger on footpaths.
But even worse is the motorist.
Every day, I have one or a number of e-scooter riders cross the road in front of me, with no regard for their own safety.
There are, and will be, lives lost and destroyed.
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Parents will want answers and motorists will be traumatised.
Some will be guilty of something and others completely innocent but all will have to carry some pretty heavy baggage for the rest of their lives.
If you say anything, a fair proportion give you ‘the bird’ or call you names, so it is a no-win situation.
Of course, there are plenty of adult-body infant-brains riding around like idiots, too.
While the Premier is stumbling around youth crime, she should throw scooters into the mix.
The situation needs fixing because we are heading for drama as quickly as the kid on the milk crate.
Ashley Robinson is a columnist with Sunshine Coast News and My Weekly Preview. His views are his own.
