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. Police say the incident occurred at about 6:50pm on Tuesday when the man attempted to cross the highway and was hit by a white Hyundai Getz hatchback travelling west.
Major crash investigators are appealing for anyone with dash cam footage or information relating to the fatal accident to contact Crime Stoppers. The death follows two recent fatalities involving e-bike riders and buses in the city over the past month.
Last week, a 37-year-old man died after his electric bicycle hit a bus in Parmelia. In the previous month, a 50-year-old e-bike rider died after colliding with a Transperth bus at an intersection in Swan View in Perth's north-east.
It has been five months since 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 following a collision with an electric off-road motorbike in July last year.
The recommendations included harsher penalties for rider offences, a crackdown on modifications to e-rideables, and better infrastructure to separate them from pedestrians and cars. However, in March it was revealed that the recommendations would not result in immediate change, with the state government asking the federal government to take action first. The WA government said at the time that 12 people had lost their lives on WA roads and footpaths due to e-rideable accidents since 2022.
