The Romanian government adopted in its Tuesday meeting an emergency ordinance regulating the use of electric scooters on Romania’s public roads.

Only those aged over 14 may ride electric scooters in Romania, and only on bike lanes and on road sectors where the maximum speed limit is 50 km/h, interior minister Marcel Vela announced after the government meeting, local News.ro reported.

Those aged under 16 must wear helmets when riding e-scooters, and the electric scooters must be equipped with night lights, the minister also said. In addition, it is forbidden to transport passengers on these scooters.

“There have been many accidents involving scooters and this ordinance defines all the rules of conduct for the electric scooter driver, so as to avoid all the dangers of using the electric scooter as a means of transport and to prevent traffic accidents,” Vela said.

He also explained that the government decided to regulate the use of electric scooters after receiving many notifications from pedestrians, drivers or even electric scooter drivers.

The Interior Ministry said a few weeks ago that there have been about 200 accidents involving electric scooters in Romania in the last three years (2016-2019). One person died in such an accident and almost 200 were injured.

newsroom@romania-insider.com

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