A father in North Vancouver, B.C., is paying the price after his child was spotted riding an e-scooter in heavy traffic on a major road. On Aug. 4, an officer spotted the rider in the street on Marine Drive at Pemberton Avenue, the B.C. Highway Patrol said in a statement Wednesday. “The rider was wearing shorts, a T-shirt, an oversized helmet and large shoes. Suspecting that the E Scooter operator was underage, the officer stopped the rider and learned that he was 12 years old,” the statement said, adding that it is illegal for anyone under 16 to operate an e-scooter. The B.C. Highway Patrol said they spoke to the child’s father, explained the law around e-scooters, and issued a $109 ticket for allowing a person under 16-years-old to operate an electric kick scooter It is part of a growing trend of incidents involving illegal use of e-scooters in British Columbia. In June, two teenage boys were fined around $700 each after allegedly trying to evade police while riding an e-scooter and e-motorcycle without helmets on in Mission. The next month, an e-scooter rider in Vancouver was handed more than $1,000 in fines after being caught going more than twice the legal speed limit for an e-scooter. Health officials have also been sounding the alarm, with a growing number of children in British Columbia being injured in e-scooter accidents. B.C. Children’s Hospital says its emergency department treated 81 patients for e-scooter related injuries between April 2025 and March 2026, more than twice as many as the previous year. B.C. Highway Patrol spokesperson Sgt. McLaughlin says police are getting an increasing number of calls and complaints about illegal and unsafe e-scooter use on city streets. “Our main goal is to prevent death and injury, and it looks like we’re going to have to issue more tickets before people get the message,” he said.
