E-scooter riders in Northamptonshire are being urged not to share their accounts with anyone, especially people below the rider age limit of 18 as police crack down on underage riders.
Northamptonshire police said it will be carrying out spot checks/patrols on e-scooter riders in the coming weeks. Riders must be 18 or over to use a Voi rental e-scooter in the county, as agreed with West Northamptonshire and North Northamptonshire Councils, who manage the e-scooter trials in the area.
Police said the majority of rental e-scooter riders follow the rules and do not share their account with anyone. However, just over 500 UK Voi riders have been banned for sharing their accounts with underage riders.
Jack Samler, regional country manager for Voi UK, Ireland and France, said: “The number of people breaking the rules and riding our scooters at a lower age than allowed or permitting others to ride our e-scooters is small - but any number is too many.
"Our rules are in place so that riders remain safe - and anyone breaking them is risking their and others’ safety.”
Northampton was the first UK area in which Voi started to operate when e-scooter trials began in 2020, with what was initially set to be a 12-month trial. In 2021, Voi estimated its e-scooters had replaced around 200,000 short car journeys and prevented over 105 tonnes of CO2 emissions during the scheme’s first year.
The deadline for UK e-scooter trials was recently extended for the fourth time to May 2026. Earlier this year road safety charity IAM RoadSmart called for the government to ‘urgently’ bring forward e-scooter legislation, after figures revealed that half of e-scooter user casualties occur outside trial areas.
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Matt O’Connell, Northamptonshire Police safer roads team manager, said: “We know that targeting dangerous e-scooter riding is something that the community want us to focus on and operations like the ones we will be carrying out in the coming weeks will do exactly that.
“A young person without a driving licence has no experience of what it’s like to travel on the roads and by enabling a child to ride an e-scooter, you are putting them at risk of serious injury and even death.
“If we stop a young person using an adult’s account, we will be looking to progress a prosecution against that adult for offences such as permitting someone with no insurance to use their account.
“We will continue working with Voi and the two local councils to target underage riding and anyone who spots an underage e-scooter rider is encouraged to report it to Voi via their reporting system.
“Please keep the children in your care safe by refusing to share your Voi account with them. E-scooters are not toys and there is a reason why the minimum age to ride one is 18.”
