A 90-year-old Spanish woman has died after a collision with an electric scooter in what is believed to be the first accident of its kind in the world. Two men were sharing a scooter when they smashed into the woman, who hit her head on the ground and died of her injuries in hospital a few days later. The pair are facing trial for manslaughter. According to the police investigation cited by the Spanish newspaper El País, the two unnamed men were travelling at more than 30 kilometres per hour along a street shared by pedestrians and traffic in the Barcelona suburb of Esplugues de Llobregat. The accident, which was not reported at the time, occurred in August. Last month a 40-year-old woman was killed in Sabadell, near Barcelona, when she fell off the electric scooter she was using and was run over by a truck. The exponential growth of electric scooters in cities in Spain and elsewhere has promoted debate about their safety and where they should be allowed to circulate. Out-of-date laws meant for non-motorised scooters mean that in Madrid, for example, they can be ridden on the pavement, although the city council is drawing up plans to restrict their use. In Barcelona a taxi driver videoed a teenage couple riding on a scooter at 50 miles an hour, presumably after manipulating the device to raise its maximum speed. Spain’s interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, said in October that traffic rules must be changed to protect “especially vulnerable” road users, noting that this year would be the first on record in which pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists’ deaths would outnumber those of drivers. British law already bans E-scooters and several towns and cities in California have ordered the vehicles off the streets. Hire-scooter company Bird has filed a lawsuit against Beverley Hills, following one such ban in the well-heeled neighbourhood.
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