Grace's Law is a 'mockery' of her name if there is no enforcement, mother says

Vivienne Clarke

The mother of Grace Lynch, the teenager who was killed when knocked down by a scrambler bike earlier this year, has said that while she would love to see a ban on such vehicles, an age restriction was likely to be more effective.

“The way I see it is that the e-bikes and the e-scooters, they're going to be used for people going to work or other things like that, but at the same time, an age restriction for me would be a better use of it, because to me, that might stop parents' minds if they're underage. If anything happens, the parents get fined,” she told Newstalk’s Claire Byrne show.

“I want parents to take full responsibility for anyone underage, that if anything happens, the parents are fully, solely responsible and fined.

"And we want some big fines to happen now, for the vendors that are selling them, for the parents, to kind of make it impossible for anyone to say or think then when Christmas comes around, well, they're looking for this, they're looking for that, well, it's not worth your while now.”

Grace’s father Martin added that while there appeared to have been a lull initially in the wake of Grace’s death, in recent times he had noticed more and more activity on streets.

“We're back to the same behaviour, wheelies, in and out of traffic.”

He said he had witnessed a person on an e-bike narrowly missing a woman and child coming out of the gate of their home in the area where Grace had been killed. “He popped a wheelie, breezed around her, missed her by inches and then went on about his business.”

Another issue that needed to be tackled he said was the output power of e-bikes which were just as powerful as a scrambler.

Siobhan added that if there was no enforcement, there was no point in having any legislation called Grace’s Law.

“It's sort of a mockery to her name, and for what she died for, if there is no enforcement. Even before Grace passed away, everybody knew a scrambler was illegal and they shouldn't be on the road.

“But because of the way the gardaí was treated in relation to going after scramblers, or trying to do their jobs in any way, shape or form, they were reprimanded.

“So I need to make sure that Jim O'Callaghan gives the gardaí the power to do what they're supposed to do, otherwise Grace's Law means nothing”