n December last year, a 32-year-old scooter rider sustained serious injuries after an intoxicated driver veered into her lane on Ostend Road. 

Waiheke Island and Aotea Great Barrier have two of the highest incidences of scooter crashes per capita in the Auckland region.

Auckland Transport statistics show that the two local board areas each had almost one crash per thousand residents between 2017 and 2021.

Waiheke’s local board area, with a population of around 9790 people, had nine reported moped crashes from 2017 to 2021.

Meanwhile, the Orakei local board area, which is home to 89,100 people, also saw nine scooter crashes in the same period.

The board area with the highest population, Howick, which has 154,500 residents, had just a single scooter crash over the same period. As did Devonport, which has a population of 59,900.

Police Sergeant Raymond Matthews says it’s extraordinary to see how over-represented Waiheke and Aotea Great Barrier are in terms of scooter crash rates.

“There are likely a number of contributing factors as to why Waiheke has such a high rate of crashes compared to elsewhere in the region.

“We probably have a lot more scooters per 1000 residents than elsewhere in Auckland.”

• Sophie Boladeras

Full story in this week’s Gulf News… Out Now!!!

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