‘My son died riding on an e-scooter –  now he is in a box in my living room’

A devastated mum has called time on ‘lawless’ e-scooters after her son died following a crash.

Jacob Calland, 14, had been riding at the back of an e-scooter behind his friend when they were knocked over by a car on March 19 near his home in south Manchester.

The teen fought for his life in intensive care for eight days before succumbing to his injuries.

Carly joins the growing list of parents who have lost a child in e-scooter crashes across the UK.

The youngest victim is thought to have been a 12-year-old rider.

There were eight deaths involving an e-scooter last year, and six deaths have been recorded so far in 2025, according to the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety. Since 2019, 52 people have died in e-scooter incidents.

Ministers are now working on plans to regulate the ‘lawless’ use of e-scooters after a spate of deaths and serious injury crashes, and their use in crime.

His mum Carly Calland recalled the ‘breathtaking’ moment she received every parent’s worst nightmare phone call from the police.

The officers told Carly to get to the scene on Southmoor Road, Wythenshawe, as quickly as possible. She arrived just in time as Jacob was about to be airlifted to Manchester Children’s Hospital.

Mum Carly decided to text and take photos of Jacob’s journey at the hospital as the pair used to text daily. She wanted to show them to his son when he woke up, but he never did.

Carly said: ‘I didn’t know what was going to happen to Jacob, so I was documenting it with the hope of sitting down together and explaining what we had gone through and how much of an impact his split-second decision to get on the back of that e-scooter, had on me and the rest of his family.’

Despite the best efforts of the medical teams, the family were told to come say goodbye as they were unable to bring down the swelling in Jacob’s brain.

Carly said: ‘Along with the scene, it was one of the hardest days of my life getting everyone to come and say goodbye.

‘Then the doctors and nurses pulled Jacob over in the bed and allowed me to get in bed with him to have my last cuddles with him. I fell asleep, and when I woke up, it was time. It was time to say goodbye, and all this over an e-scooter. It doesn’t sit right.’

Jacob died a week after the crash, surrounded by his loved ones.

Now, mum Carly is calling on the government to change the law around e-scooters to ‘end needless tragedies’ and stop other parents from having to go through the same pain.

As part of the campaign called Jacob’s Journey, she is calling for the introduction of an e-scooter licence, mandatory helmets, making it illegal to carry passengers and banning the sale of e-scooters to under-18s, which she says is the biggest problem as riders don’t know what an e-scooter can do.’

She told Metro: ‘I see e-scooters daily, and especially now on school holidays, and it hurts. I see them carrying passengers.

‘Jacob was never allowed one because I know how dangerous they can be.

‘Jacob’s got to deal with his consequences – now he is in a box in my living room. I’m just trying to stop this from happening to another mum, another sister, another uncle – it could be anybody, and I know I’m not the only person in the world going through this.’

The measures the government is looking into include licence plates, mandatory training similar to a driving test and a minimum rider age requirement of 14, although the final list has not been confirmed yet.

But mum Carly said the 14 age limit would be ‘unacceptable’ and that she would ‘fight it’ to have the age brought up to 18.

She said: ‘Teenagers think they are untouchable, and many adults think so too. I don’t want to just put it on kids, because some of the adults are just as bad, but it is mainly the kids who think they can get to places quickly and easily.

‘We have to get a driving licence to drive a car, but many of these scooters are just as powerful. Some of them can go 50mph or faster. But people get to just jump on them, and there’s no consequence.

‘There are no laws who can buy what.’

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