The BA has called for electric bikes to be exempted from the EU’s Vnuk ruling. Slovenian Damijan Vnuk was injured on private land in 2014 after falling from a ladder hit by a reversing tractor.
Since the European Court of Justice subsequently ruled that, despite happening on private land, the accident should have been covered by compulsory vehicle insurance, that then broadened the scope for a number of other vehicles to also require compulsory third-party insurance in the EU, whether used on public roads or private land.
Annex A of the consultation document listed electric bikes as a newly in-scope vehicle, defined as “any motor vehicle intended for travel on land and propelled by mechanical power, but not running on rails, and any trailer, whether coupled or not coupled.”
The BA’s submission, in response to the DfT’s consultation on how to implement the Vnuk ruling, calls for ‘a common sense approach’ with regard to EAPCs, which it argues are not 100% mechanically propelled, such that: “mechanical power is available only to assist human power, rather than operating independently” and, as such, they should fall outside of Vnuk’s scope.
Full story: http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/news/bicycle-association-calls-vnuk-e-bike-exemption/
Since the European Court of Justice subsequently ruled that, despite happening on private land, the accident should have been covered by compulsory vehicle insurance, that then broadened the scope for a number of other vehicles to also require compulsory third-party insurance in the EU, whether used on public roads or private land.
Annex A of the consultation document listed electric bikes as a newly in-scope vehicle, defined as “any motor vehicle intended for travel on land and propelled by mechanical power, but not running on rails, and any trailer, whether coupled or not coupled.”
The BA’s submission, in response to the DfT’s consultation on how to implement the Vnuk ruling, calls for ‘a common sense approach’ with regard to EAPCs, which it argues are not 100% mechanically propelled, such that: “mechanical power is available only to assist human power, rather than operating independently” and, as such, they should fall outside of Vnuk’s scope.
Full story: http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/news/bicycle-association-calls-vnuk-e-bike-exemption/
