A 12-year-old boy was killed while riding a hired Voi e-scooter unlocked by a 14-year-old friend using their father’s account, an inquest has heard, as his family called for stricter measures to prevent children using loopholes to access them.
Mustafa Nadeem suffered fatal injuries when he rode an e-scooter along the pavement and accidentally collided with a pedestrian causing him to fall on the road into the path of a bus in Birmingham on 6 December last year.
During an inquest at the city’s coroner’s court on Thursday, Mustafa’s uncle, Anis Ali, called for Voi to introduce facial recognition for each ride to ensure children are unable to bypass age verification.
“For us it’s a loss, but it’s about preventing another child or family going through what we have gone through,” he said.
The inquest heard Mustafa had found the e-scooter parked near his family home on his way to school and contacted his friend asking them to unlock it for him through the Voi app.
The friend, who was 14 at the time, was interviewed by police and said they transferred their father’s account on to their own phone and linking it to their under-16 bank account, paying for 13 e-scooter rides.
Voi is the biggest provider of e-scooters in a national pilot in England. All users are required to be over 18 and hold at least a provisional driving licence. E-scooters are classed as motor vehicles and cannot be driven legally on pavements.
Jack Samler, Voi’s regional general manager in the UK, Ireland and France, told the inquest the company’s age verification process went beyond the guidance given by the Department for Transport but that there was no way of knowing how many children were using the e-scooters.
“According to our records, all of our users are over 18,” he said. “If there are people using loopholes, unfortunately the only way we can find that out is if we see it physically or someone reports it.”
A statement from Mustafa’s school, Washwood Heath academy, said staff had noticed pupils riding the e-scooters as soon as the scheme was introduced.
“From the start of the e-scooter scheme, children riding them illegally was instantly problematic,” the statement said. “We wrote to all parents to inform them of dangers and implications of children using e-scooters.”
Voi’s contract with Transport for West Midlands ended in February, and in April it was announced that rival Beryl had won the new contract. However, West Midlands mayor Andy Street said the announcement of when the new scooters would be launched had been paused until the outcome of Mustafa’s inquest.
Area coroner James Bennett recorded Mustafa’s death as a consequence of a road traffic collision as he issued a prevention of future deaths report, which will be sent to the transport secretary and Street.
“There is a risk of future death through children using e-scooters,” he said. “It seems to me the safety issues are bigger than one e-scooter provider and the issues need to be raised with the people who can impact policy or regulation.”
In a statement read to the court, Mustafa’s family described him as a “caring young boy who would always have a smile on his face”.
“His pure innocent soul lit up the streets of our neighbourhood and without him everything seems so dull,” they said.
In a statement after the inquest, Samler said: “This is a tragic accident and our thoughts are with the family of Mustafa at this very distressing time.
“We will review the conclusions of the coroner and work with the Department for Transport to see if there is anything more we and the industry can do to ensure underage people do not ride e-scooters.”
