Norway records its 15th fatal e-scooter crash since 2020

A man in his 60s died after colliding with a car while riding an electric scooter in Skien, in Norway’s Telemark county. The crash happened at an intersection shortly before 7 p.m. local time.

Police seized the driving license of the car’s driver, a woman also in her 60s. Investigators have not yet established the traffic-light sequence. Her legal position will depend on whether the investigation finds that either person entered the intersection against a red light.

The crash brings the number of people killed in electric-scooter accidents in Norway since 2020 to 15. The vehicles have faced intense debate, particularly in Oslo, where emergency-room doctors once urged city authorities to lock rental scooters during weekend nights because intoxicated riders were taking up capacity needed for other patients.

Norway responded in 2022 by classifying electric scooters as motor vehicles and allowing driving bans for drunk riding. But Norway’s Supreme Court overturned that approach in a case decided the following year. The court said the government’s rule had not been established by law and that an electric scooter posed far less danger than a car. It said the main risk generally fell on the rider, rather than on other people.

“

The risk of harming others must outweigh the risk that the offender will suffer harm themselves.