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Police take 450 electric scooters off Benidorm streets after crackdown on illegal modifications
Half of seized scooters scrapped due to tampered software and missing paperwork, as council focuses on safe use
Benidorm’s campaign against unsafe scooter use is not just about enforcement but also about education. Students at IES Pera Maria Orts i Bosch recently attended a talk from the Ayuntamiento and police, which demonstrates a proactive, educational angle, showing Benidorm’s effort not just to enforce rules but also to educate the public and future riders.During the awareness talk, police outlined all the requirements for using e-scooters in Benidorm: they must be approved, properly insured, fitted with a bell and reflectors, and riders are required to wear helmets, stick to designated routes, and park in the correct places. As Mobility Councillor Francis Muñoz put it, “Skateboards are not toys. They are a means of transportation that must be used on authorised roads.”
Local Police have removed 450 e-scooters from the city’s streets this year, after finding that many were defective or illegally modified. More than 200 of these scooters had to be scrapped and sent for recycling because the software had been tampered with or the ownership documents were missing, making it impossible to return them.
As the council stressed, boosting a e-scooter’s power or speed by modifying its firmware is strictly forbidden and will likely result in the loss of the vehicle and an administrative fine. Once scrapped, the recycling process is complex and costly, serving as a strong deterrent for anyone considering these shortcuts and the warnings that illegally altered scooters often cause more road accidents.
This latest action follows ongoing efforts in Benidorm and across Spain to crack down on misuse, echoing earlier crackdowns on drink driving with e-scooters and underlining the need for clear rules and penalties. The message is clear: making e-scooters safer benefits everyone who shares the road.
Image: Mircea Iancu/Pixabay
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