Police issue warning video featuring e-scooter mishap

The Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) has released a somewhat unusual video which it says highlights the need to be fully aware of electric scooters in traffic – both for riders and for other road users, daily Postimees reports.
The video, made up of footage taken from a security camera, depicts the result of the convergence of two major traffic user oversights, which together could have had far worse consequences than actually transpired, Postimees reports (link in Estonian).
The PPA insists that the video, which can be viewed below and was posted on the authority's traffic safety center, is not staged; what can be seen is a pickup truck, pulling an empty trailer, making a right-hand turn off Reidi tee in central Tallinn and in the direction of the ferry port, but turning into the wrong lane, in other words into the oncoming traffic.
While the lane is free of traffic, as it happens, an e-scooter rider can be seen traversing a pedestrian crossing at speed just as the pickup is turning, ending up colliding with the empty trailer – the rider is in fact catapulted into the trailer and gets carried inside it a few meters for their troubles, though the individual was not reportedly otherwise harmed.
Close to 300 cyclists and e-scooter riders have been injured in traffic incidents in Estonia this year so far, often the result of riders misjudging their speed, skills, or being unaware of regulations – for instance e-scooter riders are required to kill their speed to that of a normal pedestrian, while failure to do so would put them at fault in any ensuing incident, even if a vehicle had failed to stop at an amber or red light, the PPA says.
The full Postimees article (in Estonian) plus video is here.
Several firms including Bolt and Tuul operate e-scooter services in Tallinn and in an increasing number of other towns in Estonia, while private ownership of e-scooters also brings more, often higher-powered contraptions on to the roads.
An e-scooter rider was killed in an accident in Tartu last year.
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