Kelowna high school takes proactive approach as concerns grow over e-scooter safety – Okanagan
As the use of e-scooters grows in popularity among students, so do safety concerns.
“The electric scooters, the different mopeds, electric bicycles we are seeing are very prevalent in our school community, ” said Graham Johnson, vice-principal at Okanagan Mission Secondary (OKM) in Kelowna, B.C.
“We are seeing students in grade 9 through 12 that are bringing them to school.”
The mode of transportation is widely used by students at OKM but staff have observed some concerning practices.
“It’s a huge concern,” said Johnson. “We’ve seen some students in our community that have been not maybe making some of the best choices they could have — not wearing helmets, riding with more than one person on the scooter.”
In an effort to be proactive and promote transportation safety, OKM partnered with various agencies to hold an information session for its students on Tuesday.
“They (e-scooters) come with some consequences and we have unfortunately seen some tough news about students with some injuries,” Jonson said.
“Fortunately we have not had any in our local community but we just thought today was a great opportunity to be proactive around this.”
Some of the agencies involved included Brain Trust Canada, ICBC and the RCMP to drive home the safety message — before it’s too late.
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“A tragedy. I don’t want that to be the reason they learn from this,” said Kelowna RCMP Const. Mike Della-Paolera.
Della-Paolera said some of the dangerous practices include doubling, even tripling up on scooters, not wearing helmets and weaving in and out of traffic.
“The neighbourhood citizens are noticing it and starting to make complaints,” Della-Paolera said. “It’s currently one of the number one injuries that they are taken to hospital right now are people that are injured on these forms of transportation.”
While there are different rules for e-scooters and e-bikes based on speed capabilities and whether they have pedals or not, ICBC says in many cases, they are being driven illegally.
“When you’re under the age of 16, you should only be riding a traditional pedal bike, ” said Joel Picard, a driver examiner for ICBC.
“Once you have something that has pedal assist, if it goes over a certain number of CCs (cubic centimetres) or certain speed you need to have a driver’s licence and be insured.”
Students in attendance welcomed the information presented at their school.
“It’s pretty needed because without it then they wouldn’t know the rules of the road and there could be more accidents,” said Grade 9 student Rhys Haslett.
“I think it would open the eyes of a lot of students and really make them think about safety,” said Grade 10 student Cash Rezansoff.
More information on the rules surrounding e-scooters and other electronic modes of transportation can be found on ICBC’s website.
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