Germany to count e-scooters in accident statistics from January 1

Dusseldorf (dpa) – E-scooters, a relatively recent addition to the transport mix, are to be included from January 1 in Germany’s official accident statistics, a spokesman for the Federal Statistics Office (DeStatis) in Wiesbaden confirmed to dpa on Friday.

At present the office is still in contact with the interior ministries of the 16 federal states, who should send appropriate figures to the Wiesbaden authority.

If that works, the office will be able to record e-scooter accidents individually for the first time at the beginning of the new year, the spokesman said.

To date e-scooters appear only under the collective category “other vehicles,” according to DeStatis.

E-scooters – legal in Germany since June 15 – are a new “method of participating in transport” that statisticians want to identify individually.

The problem, however, is that the individual state police authorities use different databases, according to DeStatis.

If the authorities were able to record e-scooter accidents individually in the computer and then pass them on, nothing would stand in the way of the start date on January 1, the spokesman said.