A man in his 40s has died after being struck by a car while riding an e-scooter across Reid Highway in Balga, a northern suburb of Perth. The incident occurred at approximately 6:50pm on Tuesday, according to Western Australia Police.
Police reported that the man was attempting to cross the highway when he was hit by a white Hyundai Getz hatchback traveling west. Major crash investigators are appealing for any witnesses or individuals with dash cam footage to come forward and contact Crime Stoppers.
This fatal crash follows the deaths of two e-bike riders in separate collisions with buses across Perth over the past month. A 37-year-old man died after his electric bicycle hit a bus in Parmelia less than a week ago, and a 50-year-old e-bike rider died after colliding with a Transperth bus at an intersection in Swan View last month.
The incidents come five months after a parliamentary inquiry into Western Australia's e-rideable laws made 33 recommendations aimed at improving safety for riders and pedestrians. 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 hit by an electric off-road motorbike in July last year.
Recommendations included harsher penalties for riders committing offenses, a crackdown on modifications to e-rideables, and better infrastructure to separate e-rideables from pedestrians and cars. However, in March it was revealed that the recommendations would not lead to immediate changes, as the state government wrote to the federal government requesting federal action first. The WA government noted that 12 people had died on WA roads and footpaths due to e-rideable accidents since 2022.
From the start of this year, the WA government banned children under 16 from riding and storing e-rideables at all public schools in the state.
