A man in his 40s has died after being struck by a car while crossing Reid Highway on an e-scooter in Balga, a northern suburb of Perth. Police say the incident occurred at about 6:50pm on Tuesday when the man attempted to cross the westbound lanes and was hit by a white Hyundai Getz hatchback.
Major crash investigators are urging anyone with dashcam footage or information about the crash to contact Crime Stoppers. The death is the latest in a series of e-rideable fatalities in Western Australia, following the deaths of two e-bike riders in collisions with buses in the past month.
In the most recent prior incident, a 37-year-old man died after his electric bicycle hit a bus in Parmelia less than a week earlier. Last month, a 50-year-old e-bike rider died after colliding with a Transperth bus at an intersection in Swan View.
The state government has faced calls for improved e-rideable safety following a parliamentary inquiry that made 33 recommendations five months ago. The inquiry was triggered by the death of Perth father Thanh Phan, who was hit by a drunk e-scooter rider in May last year, and later expanded after a 59-year-old woman died when struck by an electric off-road motorbike in July last year.
Recommendations included harsher penalties for rider offences, a crackdown on modifications, and better infrastructure to separate e-rideables from pedestrians and cars. However, in March the state government said it would not implement immediate changes, instead asking the federal government to take action first. The WA government noted that 12 people had died in e-rideable accidents on roads and footpaths since 2022, and from the start of this year banned children under 16 from riding and storing e-rideables at all public schools in the state.
