It is time to say “enough is enough” and start forcing e-scooter riders to wear proper safety gear on the roads, Ciara Kelly has said.

The Newstalk Breakfast host said she was left “quite shaken” on her way into work this morning after coming across a man riding a scooter dressed ‘top-to-toe’ in black with no lights or helmet.

Ciara said she didn’t see the man until she was nearly on top of him – even though he was ‘bombing along’ down the centre of the road.

“I would say he was doing about 50kph in the middle of the lane – I overtook him by going into the other lane,” she said.

“At what point are we going to say enough is enough? Because I came very close to killing him.”

Ciara said the man has "no lights, no reflective things, no backlights and was wearing top-to-toe black”.

'I didn't know what it was'

She said that when she first caught a glimpse of him, she thought it might be “somebody drunk standing in the middle of the road”.

“I didn’t realise what it was until I was about 15 feet from him and I realised it was an e-scooter,” she said.

The Newstalk Breakfast host said most regular cyclists tend to wear lights and reflective gear – but she believes people on e-scooters follow different rules.

“It seems to me there is almost like a uniform for people on e-scooters,” she said. “You know, black hoodie, black trousers, black top – there was no way of seeing this guy until I was literally on top of him.

“I don’t know if people on e-scooters are just unaware of how invisible they are - but are we going to wait until we kill one of them and then some poor motorist is left with the legacy of having killed someone?

“It actually really freaked me out because I was not expecting to see it and it was shocking how hard he was to see. I don’t get it.”

“You know what, I don’t want to be the motorist that kills someone on an e-scooter,” she continued.  “I am sick of the e-scooters behaving in this manner.”

E-scooter road deaths

Figures released in December showed that four e-scooter riders were killed on Irish roads in 2023 – up from one in 2022 and none in 2021.

Fellow host Shane Coleman said there seems to be “zero enforcement of the law” when it comes to e-scooters.

He said authorities need to “get serious” and start confiscating scooters from people who are caught speeding or without safety gear.