A ban on under 16s riding e-vehicles has been announced after a parliamentary inquiry into safety.
A red light has been issued to teenage e-vehicle users today in Queensland with the introduction of new safety regulations aimed at increasing vehicle safety and reducing hospital admissions.
The move entails a full ban for under 16s from riding e-scooters, e-bikes and e-motorbikes after a parliamentary inquiry into e-mobility devices.
Introducing age restrictions for the vehicles was a key recommendation of the inquiry which has been broadly welcomed by health bodies.
“This will save lives,” AMA Queensland president Dr Nick Yim said.
“The report highlighted that 12 Queenslanders died in e-mobility-related incidents in 2025, including children, with more than 6300 people requiring treatment in emergency departments.
“Tragically, most of these incidents were likely preventable, meaning the inquiry’s recommendations to improve the use and regulation of these devices is much needed.”
Both the RACGP and AMA Queensland made a formal submission to state parliament last year in June, with this reform delivering on the health bodies’ suggestions.
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AMA Queensland also wrote to the Queensland transport and main roads minister Brett Mickelberg in November 2025 to push for the under-16s ban to be implemented before the inquiry report.
Hospitals nationwide have seen an increase in admissions related to e-vehicle injuries, with this change expected to gradually reduce this number as more safety measure are adopted.
“In our end-of-year trauma audit, we saw exponential growth in the number of trauma admissions related not just to E bikes, but e-scooters and even e-skateboards,” specialist general surgeon Dr Susan Velovksi told The Medical Republic.
“You can buy e-bikes easily, but you can’t see a neuropsychologist quickly.
“It might be a lovely gift to give, but you need to think of the consequences of the injury.
“It’s hard to believe now, but people used to not want to wear seat belts, but we saw significant changes to our patterns of trauma injury when seat belts were introduced.”
As for the timeline on how this change will see a positive reduction in e-vehicle injuries, Dr Velovski has said that “it’s a matter of time and watching” before results prove the reform’s effectiveness.
“Sometimes you do need to make difficult decisions, and you take that out of the hands of the parents, who are sometimes have a conscious or unconscious bias to try and please their child,” she said.
“If it becomes a legislative process, then it has to be followed, and then we can see what the trends do.”
