Top personal injury lawyer ‘really alarmed’ by Melbourne’s e-scooters

A top personal injury lawyer says he’s “really alarmed” by Melbourne’s new shared e-scooter trial.

Managing Partner at Carbone Lawyers, Tony Carbone, says his understanding is that due to the exclusions in policy, pedestrians who are injured in collisions with the e-scooters are in essence not covered by insurance.

Mr Carbone says it looks like the only way e-scooters have coverage is if they’re involved in a collision with a car, so are covered by the Transport Accident Commission.

“I’m really alarmed about this,” he told Neil Mitchell.

“But if one of those e-scooters does damage to a pedestrian, a child or anyone else for that matter, there is not insurance as it currently stands.”

Mr Carbone says pedestrians injured by the scooters would have to sue to scooter operator, and if they don’t have insurance, their only recourse would be to sue the person that supplied the scooter.

“That becomes a legal minefield.

“I’ve got real concerns about it as a practicing lawyer in this area of practice – that is, personal injuries.”

Press PLAY below to hear Mr Carbone’s “real concerns”

Last week, Neil Mitchell quizzed head of Neuron Mobility, one of the companies running the trial, Richard Hannah, about insurance in incidents involving pedestrians.

Mr Hannah said Neuron Mobility has third party insurance, but he could not specify the level of that cover.

Neil asked what the liability of a person riding an e-scooter is if they injure somebody.

NEIL MITCHELL: “I’m riding a scooter, I run somebody down, your third party police covers the injuries to the person but I’ve done something wrong, is there any liability for me to pay anything?”

RICHARD HANNAH: “It’s actually really hard to comment without knowing the actual situation.”

Neil asked Mr Hannah to source more information on liability for scooter riders, but, a week on, he has not yet had a response.

Press PLAY below to hear how the frustrating exchange unfolded