The number of accidents of electric scooters leaps in Belgium: the Vias institute wants to make the wearing of the helmet compulsory

The number of bodily accidents involving an electric scooter jumped 62% in Belgium in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year. Similarly, according to the first barometer of road safety for 2025 from the VIAS Institute. In addition, This represents 470 accidents with injured. Furthermore, death recorded by the police between January and March, on average five per day, against 291 in the first three months of 2024. &#13. Moreover,

All regions are affected by this increase, but the increase is particularly marked in Wallonia (+95%), where the number of accidents increased from 42 to 82. For example, In the Brussels-Capital region, the increase reached 44%, with 127 accidents identified against 88 last year. However, In Flanders, the figures number accidents electric scooters leaps go from 161 to 261 (+62%). Therefore, These data do not take into account accidents where the police are not called. Moreover, as in many cases where a user alone is injured and transported directly to the hospital.

For Benoît Godart. spokesperson for Vias, several factors explain this trend, but he insists on one of them: “A shift has taken place. For several reasons, users have turned to the purchase of their own scooter. It is more economical than using shared devices. And in Brussels. the drop in the number of free floating vehicles (free sharing) was also a vector of purchase, ”he observes.

But this evolution also leads to new risks. According to VIAS. two Chinese brands in particular number accidents electric scooters leaps pose a serious security problem: “While legislation fixes a maximum of 25 km/h, it is very easy for these models to exceed 45 km/h, or even more. Which increases the risk of accidents. And we see a lot in our streets. ”

Last May. as part of the “2 Wheels” awareness campaign, the Brussels-Capital/Ixelles (Polbru) police area intercepted a scooter at 106 km/h. During this same campaign. VIAS had shown that many Belgians do not know the regulations framing the use of electric scooters, in particular traffic rules and technical limitations.

One of these brands, Kukirin, was involved in the fatal accident of Fabian, which occurred in Brussels last June. The Brussels prosecutor’s office had, in stride, seal a store selling these ultra-fast scooters. These devices. which do not meet Belgian standards, are not officially sold in the country, even if they were fraudulently in this store. “As they are number accidents electric scooters leaps imported directly via foreign websites, estimating their number is difficult or even impossible,” regrets Benoît Godart.

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To stop the increase in accidents, the VIAS Institute Formula five recommendations: prohibit the importation of models exceeding 25 km/h; accelerate the approval of a device, the “curvometer”, allowing the police to measure the actual speed of the scooters; Making the wearing of the helmet compulsory, knowing that a study has shown that 60% of the serious hospitalized injured people suffered from a head trauma; impose the wearing of a fluorescent vest at night to improve the visibility of users; And harden technical standards, particularly in terms of minimum wheels.

Vias also insists on the need to strengthen controls. while certain non -compliant models number accidents electric scooters leaps already circulate at high speed in public space, at the risk of increasing the number of serious accidents.

If this has no direct relationship with the accident-causing side of these Chinese models. the spokesman of Vias underlines another serious problem, linked to their batteries: “It is these same marks which, when leaving them in charge all night, can set fire”.