When the warm weather hits Westbrook this year, residents hoping to break out their motorized scooters will have to leave them in the garage.
The summer might be a little less fun, as a result, but it’ll be a lot safer.
An ordinance enacted last fall authorizes Westbrook police to ticket anyone caught riding a “go-ped,” or motorized scooter, a new form of transportation that has gained popularity in the last couple years. Police can ialso mpound the scooter for up to five days, and for those who are under age, their parents will have to pick the scooter up.
The ordinance is in keeping with other communities across the state and country that have begun to restrict use of these vehicles because of an increase in their involvement in serious accidents.
Last July, a serious accident on Route 302 involving a motorized scooter resulted in a minor being hospitalized. Another accident almost turned fatal in Lewiston after a scooter operator was struck by a motorist, who didn’t see the person because of the scooter’s low height.
Targeted vehicles include motorized scooters, skateboards, go-karts, mini-bikes and pocket motorcycles on public ways, sidewalks or boardwalks within the city.
Between July 2003 and June 2004, there were about 10,000 emergency-room visits as a result of scooter accidents, according to a U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission report. About two-thirds of the injured people were under the age of 15. Between October 1998 and November 2004, about 49 deaths resulted from scooter accidents.
According to the report, the most common accidents included brakes failing, getting cut off by a car, the small front wheel losing its track, the handlebars coming loose or coming off altogether or the rider being burned from touching a hot part of the scooter.
Unlike mopeds and larger motorized scooters, these scooters do not have to be registered. State law requires that moped and motorized scooter operators have a motor vehicle or motorcycle license to operate them, and they must limit their speed to below 30 miles an hour, among other restrictions.
“As the nice weather advances, I want to remind our residents about a new ordinance on the city books,” Westbrook Police Capt. Tom Roth said in an e-mail this week. “We proposed it due to a large number of accidents involving these devices not only in Westbrook but across the country.”
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