A CAMPAIGNER calling on the Government to introduce a registration plate requirement for e-scooters has voiced his support for an Andover family.

As previously reported, Kayleigh McColl was walking her eight-year-old daughter Elliemai Smith home from Knights Enham Junior School on Thursday, July 7 when an e-scooter collided with her, causing her to break two bones in her right leg and suffer a concussion.

Police have issued an appeal for information to help trace the driver.

A campaigner from London who spotted the story has said that he and other parents of young victims of e-scooter hit-and-runs cannot understand why the option of registration plates for the vehicles is not being seriously considered.

READ MORE: Police launch appeal after e-scooter hit and run left schoolgirl, 8, with broken leg

On the Sunday before the start of the new school term in September 2021, father-of-one Ashe Medforth, from Highgate took his five-year-old daughter Holly to pick up some new shoes.

They rode on Ashe’s electric cargo bike. They had just parked up, and so Holly was still wearing her helmet as she went “skipping” along the pavement.

“She went around the corner, and bang!” said Ashe.

“Your first response is for your child. The e-scooter handlebars had got stuck in her helmet! I had to wrench it out. My daughter was screaming, it had fractured her ribs.”

A kind passerby called the emergency services and, as Ashe tried to attend to his child, he claims the driver started asking him for money for the damage to his vehicle.

“He started demanding money from me, but when a nice man called the police the guy realised he would get points on his licence and rode off!” said Ashe.

The 56-year-old business owner continued: “My daughter went to the hospital, and the neurologist said to me that in his opinion, had she not been wearing the helmet, she would not just have had a concussion, she would have permanent brain damage.

“It was only by luck that she forgot she was wearing it. Normally, a child is not running around with a crash helmet on when they’re on the pavement, and it’s not something a parent should have to do.”

Police were not able to trace the driver who hit Holly. After posting a few Tweets about his experience, Ashe found that many other parents were in the same boat, and currently has a campaigning group of 17, mostly London-based, named ‘Juststickaregonit’.

SEE ALSO: Police officers take on challenge to address anti-social behaviour in Andover

The group say they are “in no way, shape or form” against e-scooters, but are lobbying the government to introduce compulsory registration plates, which they say would mean they could be more easily traced and recorded.

At a private conference in London earlier this month, Sergeant Steve Wilson of the Met police was reported saying that riders can be identified, without a need for number plates.

“If they can do this in London, why can’t they simply do the same to catch the rider that broke Elliemai’s leg in Andover?,” said Ashe. “I don’t see how they possibly can.”

He continued: “The summer holidays are upon us and there will be thousands more children on the pavements. If a kid was killed and the police can’t track a rider, suddenly we’d have a different story.

“I want Kayleigh and all the others to know that there are a few parents here who can’t make any promises, but we are trying to do what we can to help.”

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