A MAN who lost control of an E-scooter in a busy shopping centre, causing an accident that broke the leg of a five-year-old girl had breached his duty of care and displayed a "significant" degree of negligence, a magistrate has found.
Jonathon Hardy was wheeling the electronic scooter through the Cardiff shopping centre in November last year when it suddenly shot out of his hands, lurched forward and accelerated head-on into the girl, slamming into her and breaking two bones in her leg.
He waited around for only a short time before he slowly walked away with his scooter, hopped on and rode off, CCTV shows.
He said it was when he went to switch hands that he accidentally grabbed the accelerator and lost control of the e-scooter, causing it to take off at speed and collide with the child just inside the main doors of the shopping centre.
But Magistrate Stephen Olischlager said Hardy was an inexperienced rider who had been "inattentive" about whether the scooter was on as he "casually" walked it towards the exit using one hand in breach of the centre's rules.
"His decision to do it with one hand increased the risk of inadvertent acceleration," Mr Olischlager said. "It was foreseeable that if he lost control of the scooter then there was potential for serious injury to be caused to another person."
He said while there was no intent from Hardy to injure the child, it was not a "blameless accident" and it had been caused by "significant carelessness and negligence".
Mr Olischlager said the electronic scooters could accelerate quickly and impact people with significant force and Hardy had breached his duty of care to those in the shopping centre.
He found Hardy guilty of causing grievous bodily harm by negligent act and said he would be convicted and fined $800.
Hardy had pleaded guilty to riding the e-scooter on the footpath in the aftermath of the crash and was fined $129.
