Hazzard demands urgent action on e-scooter and scrambler crisis
Sinn Féin South Down MP Chris Hazzard has written to Justice Minister Naomi Long demanding urgent action on the illegal and anti-social use of high-powered scramblers, e-bikes, and e-scooters, warning that what began as a nuisance has escalated into a public safety crisis on local streets.
The South Down MP was responding to the recent Children’s Health Ireland report which revealed that there has been 1,130 emergency department attendances linked to e-scooter injuries between January 2021 and August 2025, alongside a 50% rise in children admitted with traumatic brain injuries in the last year alone.
These figures are mirrored locally, with 77 children under the age of 16 treated at Belfast’s Hospital for Sick Children over an 18-month period and 59 serious ambulance call-outs recorded over two years.
The South Down MP said: “What started as a simple nuisance is now a critical public safety crisis, and it needs to be treated like one.
“I’m hearing it directly from people right across South Down – parents who won’t let their kids play outside, older residents afraid to walk their own streets, and communities feeling terrorised in their own neighbourhoods. That is completely unacceptable.
“We have laws that simply aren’t being enforced, and that enforcement gap has allowed the situation to spiral out of control.
“These high-powered machines are being driven recklessly through housing estates and public parks.
“In the worst cases, they are being used by gangs to intimidate residents, distribute drugs, and openly evade the police. Working-class communities, in particular, have borne the brunt of this.
“I have written to the Justice Minister demanding a dedicated joint taskforce between the Department of Justice, the PSNI, and local Policing and Community Safety Partnerships (PCSPs).
“Furthermore, I am calling for police officers to be given clear legal authority, specialised training, and modern technology – including drone support – to safely seize these vehicles and take them off our streets.
“Communities deserve to feel safe where they live, and no one should have to think twice before stepping onto a footpath.”
