Charlie Smith
A YOUTH faces possible manslaughter charges after he hit a 90-year-old woman with his electric scooter in northern Spain.
The woman, who was out for a stroll in Esplugues de Llobregat, Barcelona in August, becomes Spain’s first pedestrian death by an electric scooter.
Sources told El Pais that the rider was using the Google Maps app on his phone when he hit the woman, travelling at 30 km/h.
The fatal accident occurred on a pedestrianised section of the Rambla del Carme thoroughfare of the city.
After the woman fell down and hit her head on the pavement she was rushed to the Moisès Broggi Hospital in a critical condition, where she died days later.
Manoli, the manager of an upholstery shop on the street where she died, said:”She was always going up and down with her walker. She was very well-known.”
Last month Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, said the criminal code would be reformed to sort out the conflict between pedestrians and scooter users.
That the scooter was powered by battery is irrelevant. Arrogant idiocy is the culprit here. Absorbed by a phone, driving on a pedestrianised route and being young and stupid, killed this lady. The “criminal code” should not need reform to prevent powered vehicles sharing space with pedestrians. It is a self-evidently wrong for this to be possible. Lock him up and take him off the road for years.