Estonian police check how fast children ride e-scooters to school

Estonian police have been carrying out morning checks near schools to identify children using e-scooters capable of exceeding the country's legal speed limit of 25 km/h. A film crew from the news programme "Aktuaalne Kaamera" joined one such raid at a school in a Tallinn suburb.

Children travel to the school either in their parents' cars or on their own vehicles. While police have no concerns about bicycles, e-scooters raise questions: some look like ordinary models, while others are clearly built for high-speed riding. Officers check whether the scooters meet national requirements, since a simple speed limiter set through an app is not considered sufficient.

Mari-Liis Mölder, senior commissioner of the Northern Prefecture, said parents and children typically claim the speed limiter is switched on and that an agreement has been made at home not to change it. However, police consider it a violation if the limiter can be removed via a button combination or through an app, since there is no guarantee a child won't disable it once on the road or bike path. According to Mölder, a proper limiter should not be changeable through a button combination.

More than 10 violations were identified near this particular school, meaning the children's parents had to come and collect the scooters. Police noted that the actual number of potential violations was higher, as several children turned around and rode off upon spotting an officer — some arrived at school wearing only their helmets, having left their scooters elsewhere.

School's response

The school said the issue of e-scooters had already been raised at a general parents' meeting earlier in the year, though the administration can only restrict scooter use on school grounds. Acting principal of Kindluse School, Laura Vaikma, noted that even a compliant scooter can be dangerous around large numbers of younger pupils, adding that children tend to remember the agreement and dismount as soon as they notice a staff member in an orange vest on duty.

Police remind the public that any e-scooter capable of exceeding 25 km/h must be registered with the Transport Administration and cannot be used by children or by individuals without the appropriate category of driving licence.