SCOOTER KILLING: Court investigates after rider ploughs into elderly woman in Spain

A COURT in Barcelona has heard a young man may have been using his phone when he knocked down and killed and an elderly woman on his electric scooter.
Lawyers claim the accused was travelling at speeds close to 30 kilometres an hour when he fatally ran over a woman in her nineties in Esplugues de Llobregat, Barcelona.
Prosecutors say this amounts to negligence and the man should be convicted of reckless homicide.
Another person who was travelling on the scooter at the time of the incident is appearing as a witness in the case.
Sources told one publication the driver may have been using Google Maps on his mobile phone when he ploughed into the woman, causing her to fall and hit her head.
The incident occurred in August in an area reserved for pedestrians.
The victim was admitted to Moises Broggi Hospital in a serious condition but died a few days later from her injuries.
Sources say before the incident the woman walked with a cane but was otherwise in good health.
The case has raised the question of whether legislation is required to protect pedestrians from electric scooters.
Spain’s Interior Minister, Fernando Granda Marlaska, said while their users were, “vulnerable,” they: “can cause significant damage to third parties, depending on how they drive.”
The general deputy director of mobility for the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT), Jorge Ordas, told one publication the DGT is working on laws to limit “electric propulsion vehicles” to a maximum speed of 25 kilometres an hour and ban them from pavements.
 

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