'Imagine if this was my grandmother': Crackdown call for e-mobility devices

The mayor of Narrabri Council, in northwestern NSW, told ACM the child missed him by millimeters.

"My first thought was 'imagine if this was my grandmother'," he said.

A growing number of young people in his area, some as young as eight, are using e-bikes and e-scooters for recreation and transport, he said.

Most ride in groups. None wear helmets.

"It is a big concern," he said. "Shop owners are complaining they are burning down the street, almost in defiance of the police."

Roxanne Whitton owns the local newsagency in Wee Waa, 40km west of Narrabri.

She told ACM elderly customers were "petrified" of this new fad.

E-mobility is booming in NSW.

It's particularly prevalent in beach areas like Byron and Newcastle where the young zip around, often half-naked, on wide-tyred e-bikes.

Households across NSW own around 1.35 million e-mobility devices.

According to Transport NSW 570,000 are e-bikes and 459,000 are e-scooters.

Around 20 per cent of adults in NSW ride e-bikes.

The peak body for the bicycle industry, Bicycles Industries Australia, acknowledged while e-bikes and e-scooters were "fantastic for transport, health benefits and reducing congestion" there were safety concerns for unregulated or non-road legal bikes.

"The industry is concerned about the ease at which many of these can be 'unlocked' for use on private property and then used on public roads," general manager Peter Bourke said.

As e-mobility surges, the injuries have increased too.

Dental, craniofacial, upper limb fractures and traumatic brain injuries are now common.

Royal Australiasian College of Surgeons (RACS) NSW trauma chair Dr Vikram Puttaswamy told ACM there had been an "exponential increase" in these types of injuries due to e-bikes and e-scooters in NSW.

The situation is particularly dire in regional NSW because of a "paucity of resources in regional areas for treating trauma".

"Any increase in burden of illness or burden of regional hospitals will only make things worse for the hospital system that is already overrun," he said.

A look at three regional hospital emergency departments in Queensland since e-scooters were introduced in 2018 shows a steady increase in injury presentations.

A parliamentary inquiry into the use of e-bikes and e-scooters is set to hand down its findings in February.

Inquiry chair and Greens MLC Cate Faehrmann told ACM laws hadn't "kept pace with the growth" in the use of e-bikes and e-scooters.

Ms Faehrmann said there was "frustration" in the community about the lack of regulation.

Currently, privately owned e-scooters could not be legally ridden in public spaces.

There are a number of trial e-scooter shared schemes in council areas across the state.

E-bikes are legal but regulation is minimal. Users have power limits and operate under a requirement that the motor cuts off when the bicycle reaches 25km/h.

There were over 300 submissions to the parliamentary inquiry.

Medical groups such as RACS are seeking mandatory helmets, speed limits and strictly no passengers.

Meanwhile, a handful of regional councils are urging the state government to invest in cycling infrastructure.

For the Narrabri mayor, while e-bikes and e-scooters certainly have benefits, urgent regulation was needed.

"You can see a potential problem getting worse and worse if nothing is done," Mayor Tiemens said.