The 19-year-old Canberra woman who died in an e-scooter collision on Sunday afternoon has been identified as Laura Wallace.
Her mother, Jay Wallace shared a series of photos of her daughter on Facebook, with family friends sharing their words of condolences.
One woman known to the family wrote about the “grief” she was feeling and said Laura “was the strongest kid, a beautiful person”.
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Laura also often shared inspirational and emotive quotes on her personal Facebook page. In a post shared on Saturday, the day before her death, she shared a graphic which read: “Removing myself from situations where I don't feel loved, appreciated, or respected”.
In another post, she shared a quote which spoke to independence and being self sufficient.
“Some people aren’t good at asking for help because they’re so used to being ‘the helper,’” the graphic read.
“Throughout their life they’ve experienced an unbalanced give and take, so their instinct is usually ‘I’ll figure it out on my own’. The self-reliance is all they’ve ever known.”
The teenager died at Canberra Hospital after an e-scooter she was riding collided with a car in the Canberra suburb of Kambah near Drakeford Drive and O’Halloran Circuit.
ACT Policing said the impact threw her “a substantial distance” across an intersection and left her with serious head and leg injuries. Authorities also confirmed the woman was not wearing a helmet at the time.
ACT Policing’s Major Collision Team is continuing its investigation into the crash and a report will be prepared for the coroner.
While this incident was the ACT’s 12th road fatality of 2022 and its first recorded e-scooter fatality, there have been a number of deaths related to e-scooter across Australia this year.
Speaking about this collision, Detective Acting Inspector Paul Hutcheson said it was a “tragic and preventable death of a young Canberran on ACT roads” and urged people to follow precautions.
“It’s nothing new, you don’t need to know the e-scooter rules to know to wear a helmet, obey the speed limit, cross the road safely, (and) look both ways before crossing,” he said.
“It’s exactly the same rules that we talk about for cyclists, pedestrians or car users.”
Most recently, a 15-year-old Brisbane boy died after he hit his head on the footpath after falling off an e-scooter in July. The teenager was taken to hospital, however he passed away from his injuries five days later.
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In May, father-of four Kim Rowe was also killed in a 2.30am collision, after his e-scooter collided with a cyclist on a blind bend in Thornlie, Perth. Although the man was wearing a helmet at the time, he suffered critical injuries as a result of the incident.
Currently large-scale rental scooter services have been trialled across Australia, despite safety concerns for pedestrians.
As it stands, share schemes and privately-owned e-scooters are only able to be publicly ridden in Tasmania, the ACT, Queensland and Western Australia. However, area-specific trials are in place in Victoria, South Australia, the Northern Territory and NSW.
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