E-scooter and e-bike injury payouts pass £110 million due to “worrying” rules knowledge gap
Over 700 payouts have been issued by the MIB following e-bike and e-scooter collisions since 2015
Injury payouts following collisions involving e-scooters and e-bikes in the UK have surpassed £110 million. An explosion in payouts has prompted calls for greater awareness of micromobility rules.
According to the Motor Insurance Bureau, a non-profit organisation that’s paid for by insurers to support those affected by uninsured collisions, it has processed over 700 claims involving accidents with e-scooters and e-bikes since 2015. These add up to a total of almost £111 million in payouts.
In fact, almost half of this (roughly £47 million) was paid out in 2025 alone, with roughly £30 million being spent on compensation the year prior. However, given that claims are reported based on the year the accident took place and that those affected have up to three years to submit their case, the MIB says only figures up to 2022 are final. That means that the above totals still have more time to grow.
Knowledge gap on e-scooter and e-bike laws
The MIB’s CEO, Angus Eaton, pointed out what he described as “a worrying gap between how commonly people use micromobility vehicles and how well they understand the law around them. Many people simply don’t realise that riding a privately owned e-scooter on public roads is illegal, and that means they’re riding uninsured.”
At the time of writing, the only way to legally ride an e-scooter on public roads is to rent one via an approved scheme, which usually includes insurance. Riding a privately-owned e-scooter on public roads can leave you liable for six penalty points on your licence, an unlimited fine, a potential driving ban and the seizure of the scooter itself. That’s not to mention the higher insurance premiums offenders will face in the future.
However, the consequences extend further than this as the MIB says that many of the claims it’s received involve those who have suffered traumatic brain and tissue injuries, as well as complex fractures requiring surgery as a result of being hit by someone on an e-bike or e-scooter.
In 2026 there were just over 2,000 ‘other road user’ – the classification the Department for Transport uses for users of vehicles such as e-scooters – casualties on UK roads. This is a slight decrease year-on-year from 2024, but an increase of 11 per cent compared with 2015. Cyclists, on the other hand, suffered around 16,000 casualties which is 15 per cent fewer than a decade ago but 10 per cent more than in 2024.
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