The London Fire Brigade has backed Transport for London’s ban on private e-scooters, which prevents them from being taken in to the capital’s transport network.
Following a few incidents of privately own e-scooters catching fire on TfL services, a review took place by TfL which found that the incidents that occurred were caused by defective lithium-ion batteries which ruptured without warning, leading to fires that caused toxic smoke to be released therefore if this was to happen again and fires occurred in an enclosed area like a tube train there could be significant harm to all on board.
On Monday 13th December 2021, the ban was put in place and customers with these devices are not permitted to enter any of TfL’s network or travel on any of its services including the tube, buses, overground etc.
This issue has been a growing concern with the fire brigade for some time, in 2021 firefighters in England attended more than 50 blazes as a result of e-scooters or e-bikes in comparison to 2020 which saw half that amount for the whole year! This prompted London Fire Brigade to issue an urgent safety warning.
Paul Jennings, Assistant Commissioner for Fire Safety, London Fire Brigade, said “We have growing concerns about the safety of e-scooters and e-bikes due to the amount of fires we are seeing involving them, so we fully support TfL’s ban of private e-scooters on public transport.’
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