Elderly couple escape injury after near miss with Doncaster youngsters on illegal scooters

The pair say they are ‘very concerned’ about the scooters and that they were ‘taking their lives into their own hands’ every time they set foot outside their house.

John and Molly Whiteside, who live in Sprotbrough, have also hit out at South Yorkshire Police over a failure to take the matter seriously.

In an open letter, Mr and Mrs Whiteside said: “We are an elderly couple and we are very concerned about the use of these motorised scooters by young teenagers in the area.

"A few weeks ago, we were nearly run into by a couple of lads on one of these scooters as we were walking along a very narrow part of the pavement, coming out of the village.

"The scooter had no lights on and was silent, so we were not aware of its presence until we were nearly hit.

"We told the police who asked us to let them know if we saw them again. We did see them again on both the pavement and the road (which is very dangerous as it is a rat-run to and from the motorway).

"The local PCSOs say it is difficult to give the kids a ticket as they are too young and so long as they are riding carefully on the pavement then they tend not to worry, even though these scooters are not legally allowed on either the road or the pavement.

“Our police are doing very little and do not seem to be making any effort to catch them.

“We have expressed concern to the council and the police about the speeds at which the traffic goes down these rat runs but nothing is ever done. We take our lives in our hands every time we have to cross the road to our house or to the shops.”

The electric scooters have become popular across the country in recent months – but it is currently illegal to ride them on public roads.

Upset residents say the scooters are not only being ridden on the the town’s roads but on paths and in public areas too – with a number of people injured in e-scooter crashes across South Yorkshire in recent statistics.

Department for Transport figures, published for the first time last October, show five casualties were recorded by South Yorkshire Police as having been involved in accidents with the vehicles in 2020.

Across Britain, police forces recorded 484 casualties resulting from 460 e-scooter incidents during the same period.

The DfT warned many non-fatal casualties may have gone unrecorded nationally because there is no obligation to report such incidents to police forces.

Trials for the use of the vehicles, which are similar to conventional kick scooters but powered by an electric motor and battery, started in July 2020 and are currently active across 31 areas in England.

The Government said ministers had recently written to all major e-scooter retailers reminding them of their responsibility to inform customers of the law when selling e-scooters.

Anyone wanting to report incidents can contact police on 101.