More than 80 fire incidents involving motorised PMDs since 2016: Lam Pin Min

There have been more than 80 fire incidents involving motorised personal mobility devices (PMDs) since 2016, said Senior Minister of State for Health and Transport Lam Pin Min in Parliament on Monday (10 September).

During the second reading of the Land Transport (Enforcement Measures) Bill, Lam told the House that this poses “serious public safety concerns”. He added that many of the motorised PMDs currently sold in Singapore do not conform to any reliable safety standard.

In this regard, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has determined that the UL2272 certification standard, which covers the electric and battery safety of a PMD, is suitable for application in Singapore. The UL2272 standard is developed by an independent US certification company.

“For public safety, we intend to require all motorised PMDs intended for use on public paths to conform to the UL2272 standard. We intend to prohibit retailers from selling motorised PMDs which are not UL2272-compliant from July 2019 onwards,” said Lam.

Existing owners of motorised PMDs can continue to use their devices until end-2020. The use of non UL2272-compliant devices on public paths will be illegal from January 2021 onwards.

Last week, the Ministry of Transport accepted the Active Mobility Advisory Panel’s recommendations for safer path sharing. This includes reducing the speed limit on footpaths for PMD users and cyclists to 10kmh.

In May, stiffer penalties for errant riders of bicycles, e-scooters or other PMDs also kicked in, including jail time.

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