Mr. Will O'Brien:

If we are talking about it in the context of collisions and safety, the committee has heard from us about the education and training stuff we do. It has heard about geofencing. If a user is not using the service properly, what can you do to minimise the risk even further? You then start looking at the scooter. As Ms Springthorpe mentioned, the visibility of it is critical. Our scooters are bright yellow so they stand out like a sore thumb in that regard. Reflective tape is another very easy measure to put on to scooters. Again, local authorities can talk to operators and say the standard for their scooters is a certain amount of reflective tape. That is an easy thing for us to add if they want more. We have front, back and side lights on all of our scooters. We are also looking at indicators to give that visibility and an indication to other road users of which way riders are going and how they are using the road. The bell is critical. It is such a simple thing. Everyone knows how to use a bike bell and knows the context in which to use it so ensuring that is on every e-scooter is a good idea. I think the bell could be in the regulations. It is quite a common standard.

We are researching other things around lighting in UCD where we have a project looking at adaptive lighting systems - not just having a static light on all of the time but a lighting system that lights out and put lines down the front to show the oncoming track of the scooter. For example, in London, there is a light on the front of Boris bikes to allow someone who cannot hear them to see them on the road in front of them. Another thing is looking at light that does not just project backwards but also on to the back of the user so it would come up from the back wheel of the scooter and illuminate the user's back. We are looking to progress things with Irish researchers. We are progressing a noise device project similar to other operators so there is a whole range of things. After you have done all these things and if there is an accident, it is critical riders are banned, which is something we do if there is ever an incident like this and we have a report. We have registration plates on all our scooters so if they see registration 101750 at 2.15 p.m. on Ballincurr Road and pull out that, we can go back at our back end and see that Will O'Brien was on that scooter and involved in that accident and can ban him from a service. I ride quite sensibly.