'I warned my son about e-scooters before his death'

A mother has described how her 14-year-old son was killed after a "split-second decision" to get on the back of a friend's electric scooter.

Jacob Calland died a week after the e-scooter he was travelling on with his friend, who was also 14, crashed into a car on Southmoor Road, Manchester, on 19 March.

Carly Calland who arrived at the scene moments after the crash, said "18 minutes of him leaving this front door, his life was gone".

She has called for stricter regulations and safety measures for e-scooters and said "if I can save one life it is going to be worth it".

E-scooters are legal to buy and use on private land, but it is illegal to ride them on public roads unless they are hired through an authorised rental scheme.

Ms Calland has launched a campaign 12 weeks after Jacob's death calling for the introduction of licenses for e-scooters to stop them being sold to those under the age of 18, and new rules prohibiting passengers being carried on the back.

The Department for Transport have been contacted for comment.

Ms Calland described her son as "very loving, headstrong, and a cheeky chappy".

"He knew what he wanted in life and he was always going to go for it," she said.

Ms Calland said her son's fatal crash was "something I've never seen before".

"You see it on TV but that's your life changing in that split instance it was surreal", she said.

In conversations with Jacob, she had warned him not to get on e-bikes or electric scooters, because "he didn't have road sense on his feet never mind on something as powerful as these things", she said.

Alongside her calls for e-scooter licences and a ban on their sale to children, Ms Calland wants to see more safety equipment on the vehicles.

She said: "When we get in a car we have to wear a seat belt. Why when they get on the e-scooters do they just get to go on them with no helmets [and] no safety equipment?"

She also wants stricter punishments for those breaching e-scooter laws.

She said: "You think it is never going to be you. I thought the same. I never thought that my son was going to die on an e-scooter.

"I hope no other parent, brother, sister... has to go through this because it isn't an easy journey.

"I just hope that our message and campaign and... putting my pain into [Jacob's] power is going to save somebody else from doing this."

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