A yoga teacher nearly drowned after she was struck by an electric scooter and sent flying into a canal as she cycled along a narrow towpath late at night.
In one of the most shocking incidents yet involving the battery-powered vehicles, the 28-year-old woman spent five minutes struggling in the water, trying to scramble up a high-sided bank.
It is believed the scooter rider, who was listening to music on headphones, rode off without realising what happened.
At one point, the woman gave up trying to clamber out and instead tried to swim to a houseboat 150 yards away, but the weight of her heavy cardigan and rucksack pulled her under the water. A passer-by then heard her cries and came to her rescue.
Her mother told The Mail on Sunday last night that her daughter was extremely shaken up by what happened, adding: ‘One minute she was cycling on the canal path, then there was this encounter with this electric scooter which pushed her into the water. It was so lucky the passer-by came along when he did.’
Cyclists and an electric scooter rider vie for space under the bridge beside Regent’s Canal where the young woman was knocked off
Her daughter was treated in hospital for shock, given a tetanus jab and tested for Weil’s disease, a potentially deadly bacterial infection carried in rats’ urine which contaminates water and river banks.
‘Apart from the shock, she is thankfully unhurt,’ said her mother.
The hit-and-run happened along the Regent’s Canal in Hackney, East London, last week, the day before a year-long e-scooter trial – one of many being conducted around the country – was halted in Coventry over safety concerns.
‘My daughter doesn’t think that the scooter rider even realised what happened,’ said the mother.
‘Although she is a good swimmer, her rucksack and clothes made it hard for her to swim. She found it difficult and tiring trying to pull herself out – she is only 5ft 3in.’
A close friend of the yoga teacher thanked the passer-by on the neighbourhood app, Nextdoor, saying: ‘I dread to think what might have happened if you hadn’t been around.’
The hit-and-run happened along the Regent’s Canal in Hackney, East London, last week, the day before a year-long e-scooter trial – one of many being conducted around the country – was halted in Coventry over safety concerns. Pictured: A close up of an electric scooter by Bird
Rental e-scooters were made legal on roads in Britain this summer in an attempt to ease pressure on public transport amid the coronavirus crisis, but privately owned scooters cannot be used on public roads or pavements. Their speed has also been capped at 15.5mph and riders should wear helmets.
Private owners of the battery-powered machines face a fine and points on their driving licence if they use them on public roads, but despite this, sales of e-scooters, which cost up to £300, have soared and the rules are widely flouted.
Warning people using the towpath to ‘stay vigilant’, the yoga teacher’s rescuer, a photographer, said on Nextdoor: ‘Last night, I was walking home around 1am and came upon a girl struggling to get out of the canal after being knocked in by a guy on an electric scooter.’
Regent’s Canal is 5ft deep but its 2ft-high bank makes it all but impossible to clamber out of the water unaided. Under the bridge, the path can barely accommodate two people standing side by side. Boat owners along the canal said the e-scooter problem had worsened over the past 12 months.
Matthew Channing, 53, said: ‘The path is already too narrow for pedestrians and cyclists but it’s become a complete death-trap with these souped-up electric scooters that whizz along. It’s a real blight along the towpath. The worst part is that they’re so quiet that no one can hear them coming so it doesn’t surprise me that people are getting knocked in the water.’
And Tim Drury said the boating community was growing increasingly frustrated by e-scooters along the towpath. ‘These are motorised vehicles that rave along these paths at up to 20mph. Cyclists at least slow down and get off and walk under the bridges, but the e-scooters seem to think the rule doesn’t apply to them. I really don’t think they should be allowed along here.’
It was reported last week that e-scooters will be fitted with number plates after warnings that antisocial behaviour on them is worse in England than anywhere in Europe. The company behind the trial in Coventry and at least 12 other cities will install identification plates to ensure that errant riders can be tracked.
Critics of e-scooters include the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, which says that ‘the public benefits of e-scooters are largely illusory’.
Executive director David Davies said of the Hackney incident: ‘This sounds very distressing. The Government needs to take action to control illegal scooter use. It does seem as if people are abusing the e-scooter trials, they are being used in the wrong areas, used on pavements, and it’s quite difficult to enforce and police that. The danger is that it just gets more and more out of hand.’