No, You Shouldn't Ride a Scooter With Your Child While Texting

For the love of all that is good, take extra care when riding with youngsters.

By: Enrico Punsalang

May 20, 2024 at 10:17am ET

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It goes without saying that riding a two-wheeler—be it a pedal bicycle or a motorcycle—carries with it a little more risk than riding inside of a four-wheeler with seatbelts, airbags, and other safety accouterments. And so it should come as common sense that we need to pay extra attention to what we’re doing when piloting our two-wheeled vehicles.

Unfortunately, common sense isn’t as common as we’d like it to be. Case-in-point: this dude riding a scooter with a kid, all while using his phone and letting go of the handlebars completely. Best of all, neither of them were wearing helmets.

The Guardia Urbana Barcelona, the municipal police force for Barcelona, took to social media to announce that they arrested and prosecuted the offending individual. The office went as far as to post a video of the man, caught in the act as he and a little girl—who must be at most six years old—were cruising along a busy road aboard a scooter.

The little girl was standing on the scooter’s floorboard holding the handlebars, and there was even a time when the guy would check his phone and completely let go of the bars, leaving entire control of the scooter to the toddler.

How crazy stupid is that?

Making things even worse is that our sources seem to suggest that the man was under the influence of alcohol. No Father of the Year award for you, and damn, talk about child endangerment.

Upon closer inspection, you’ll notice that the scooter the man is riding isn’t his own, but rather, a rental scooter from a company called Yego. Now, upon visiting its official website, safety is supposedly at the very core of this scooter rental company. I mean, its tag line literally says “Ride Green. Ride Safe. Ride With Yego.” And so if that were the case, how did this individual manage to get his hands on a rental scooter and do what he did?

Perhaps Yego’s safety guidelines are due for review. After all, it’s Yego’s reputation on the line in instances like this, with the brand’s logo plastered proudly on the side of its scooters.

What do you think?

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We’ve reached out to Yego and asked for an official comment on the situation. How could a crazy individual like this slip past their safety protocols? Are they taking legal action against him? Hopefully, we’ll know soon enough, and we’ll update this story if and when they get back to us.

It doesn’t really matter how you look at this, but nothing about this incident is acceptable. From the way the child is standing on the floorboard, to the lack of safety gear, to the use of his smartphone, and the alleged alcohol consumption, it’s clear that this dude belongs nowhere near a two-wheeler, and perhaps shouldn’t be left alone with his child.