Trevor Laffan: My go-kart days were risky, but e-scooters are a bigger danger

I know some people will find it hard to believe, but I wasn’t always a cantankerous old fart. There was a time when I was actually young and carefree.

Granted, it was a long time ago, and way before there was such a thing as an e-scooter, but back in those days I had something even better.

I had an amazing go-kart that my father built for me. It looked impressive. It was basically a timber box that sat on two axles and four pram wheels, but to me it was a wooden Ferrari.

It even had a brake attached to one of the back wheels, but in reality, that only worked when you were almost stopped, and I found that out the hard way.

I nearly got killed on it. I came down a steep hill too fast near my place and crashed into a milk truck that happened to be doing a three-point turn in the middle of the road.

I survived with a few cuts and grazes, which was down to luck and no thanks whatsoever to my useless handbrake.

They were all the rage in those days; go-karts, I mean, not milk trucks. Pram wheels were much sought after, and it wouldn’t be long before any abandoned pram would be stripped clean.

Mothers had to be careful where they left their babies sleeping or they could find their prams resting on four concrete blocks when they returned.

When a kid managed to get his hands on a set of wheels, the news spread like wildfire, and it wouldn’t be long before they were attached to a new kart.

Every kid raced one and safety was something that never entered into our minds because we were invincible.

It was the same with bicycles. Helmets and hi-vis vests had yet to be invented so we didn’t know any better. We didn’t care either.

We had a few things in our favour though. It was 1969 so the traffic was light and there were fewer obstacles to run into on the streets.

It doesn’t seem that long ago to me, but a quick look at the events of that year brings me back down to Earth in true astronaut fashion. That was the year of the Apollo 11 mission which was launched by NASA.

Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins were orchestrating the first successful landing on the lunar surface, and while they were strutting their stuff on the moon, Woodstock, the music festival, was being held in New York.

Woodstock was a huge musical event. The line-up included performances by Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Who, Santana, Joe Cocker, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and many more.

Dr Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated the year before, and the civil rights movement was in full force in 1969. The Vietnam War was also raging, and President Richard Nixon took office, so there was a lot going on while I was risking my neck on a go-kart.

More than 55 years later and a new craze has emerged, that of the e-scooter, and it’s causing more of a stir than our timber machines did.

So much so, that Government leaders have been trying to figure out what to do.

Regular scooters have been around for years, but I never had one. I never saw the appeal, to be honest, but these e-scooters are a different animal.

I first encountered them on the continent a few years ago, and I thought they were a complete nuisance.

They’ve grown in popularity since then and now they are everywhere. They can travel at speed too and their electric motor is silent so they can be up on you before you know it.

You don’t hear them coming, so it’s easy to step in front of one when they are bombing down a footpath.

I’ve had a few close shaves with these damn things, like many other people, and a footpath is no place for them. After all, they are electrically powered vehicles capable of travelling at speeds in excess of 20km per hour and collisions have resulted in serious injuries.

Children’s Health Ireland stated that there has been a 50% increase in the number of children seriously hurt while riding e-scooters, and that has created a demand for the use of these machines to be regulated.

It was reported that, under Irish laws, e-scooter users must be at least 16 years of age, and devices used on public roads cannot exceed a design speed of 20km/h.

The Government has insisted the prospect of an all-out ban on e-scooters remains on the table, but new laws will be introduced first to crack down on illegal usage.

There is a darker side to them as well. Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly has said e-scooter riders are using them for drug dealing and for drug debt intimidation. The Green Party has called for toy shops to end their sale of the vehicles.

The regulations for increasing the age for e-scooter users and mandating the use of helmets and high-vis clothing could be introduced soon, while the Taoiseach has insisted that a “full ban will be kept on the table as an option”.

Spain is also tackling electric scooters and, as of January, 2027, only scooters that are certified, registered, and insured will be allowed on public roads. If scooters do not meet these three requirements, they cannot be used in public.

Other countries are looking at this issue too, so life is about to become more difficult for e-scooter riders everywhere.

That’s no harm either because safety must be a priority.

We were bad enough with our timber go-karts, but they were only powered by gravity. I can only imagine what carnage would have ensued if we had fitted engines to them.