Every year, five to six people die in electric scooter accidents and around a thousand are seriously injured, writes the Swedish Transport Administration in the background to its proposed measures.
- The situation is urgent. It is not just about the number of accidents having increased, but also about how people get injured. It is often skull and facial injuries that can cause lasting pain, and it is mainly young people who are affected, says Maria Krafft.
In order for electric scooters to be driven in public traffic, they must go at a maximum of 20 kilometers per hour and have a maximum power of 250 watts. DN previously wrote that around 30 parents have been prosecuted for letting their children drive too fast and too powerful electric scooters.
Maria Krafft thinks this is a step in the right direction, but believes that more needs to be done.
The Swedish Transport Administration is tasked with leading road safety work and is now proposing four measures to reduce accidents – a blood alcohol level limit, helmet requirements for everyone, an age limit and a stop to the sale of illegal electric scooters.
The proposals are supplemented with statistics. Every second person who has died in electric scooter accidents has been under the influence of alcohol and nine out of ten have not had a helmet, writes the Swedish Transport Administration.
Today there are helmet requirements for children under the age of 15, but this is not enough according to Maria Krafft.
- It's about the fact that you can easily fall over and what needs to be protected. A broken wrist might not be the worst thing. But a head injury can affect you for the rest of your life.
In Norway, Denmark and Finland there are age limits for electric scooters, but not in Sweden.
- We have to ask ourselves if it is reasonable for 11-12-year-olds to drive around in these vehicles. Then you can think about where the line should be drawn, there we can look at how other countries have done, says Maria Krafft.
Work is already underway to revise the rules for electric scooters. During the summer of 2026, the Swedish Transport Agency has received a government assignment to submit proposals for measures to increase traffic safety when using electric scooters.
The result must not be reported until January 13, 2028.
- It is too slow. We have trauma units in the big hospitals that sound the alarm and many are at risk of getting hurt before then. Even if there is a well-founded and good proposal in 2028, it will take even longer before we get rules in place, says Maria Krafft.
What do you hope to achieve with your action proposals?
- We hope that it can become a tool for dialogue around these issues and increase awareness in several parts of society. It is also a way of trying to influence the government's mission and show that these are measures that we lack in Sweden.
Investigator Niklas Strand works with the regulatory review at the Swedish Transport Agency.
"Developing well-substantiated proposals requires time to analyze expected effects, consequences and how the rules can work in practice. We cannot anticipate the conclusions of the investigation. In parallel, we and other actors inform about risks and rules, with a particular focus on the target groups that are most affected," he writes in an email to DN.
Maria Krafft believes that there are things to do even before new rules are in place.
- 90 percent of all electric scooters sold today go far too fast. The main challenge right now is the market pumping out electric scooters that are not legal to use on public roads. Stopping it is something that could be started here and now.
