Rebecca Dunne was walking to a shop in Finglas, Dublin with her seven-year-old twin boys and their baby sister in a pram when a man on an e-scooter collided with one of her sons, Brody. They were on the footpath, the boys a metre a head of her. “I wasn’t even a minute away from my house. He fell over the handlebars of his scooter and landed on top of Brody.”Brody’s elbows and knees were cut and he said he felt dizzy and sick. They had to wait 55 minutes for an ambulance. On the same road another man on a scooter had collided with a road sign and emergency services were busy on that job, Dunne says. She was very upset. “I was roaring at the man ‘Why were you on the footpath?’” He said he was trying to avoid the traffic, she says. “In fairness to him he didn’t leave the scene.”It turned out Brody had a serious concussion. A week later Dunne worried about his persistent headaches and a blackened ear, and brought him in for another scan. Brody is fine now but is scared of walking on the footpath. “What does that mean for the most vulnerable in society, if they can’t use the footpath safely?” says Dunne. “Kids shouldn’t have to look over their shoulders. Brody is one of the lucky ones to only sustain minor injuries. Not every parent or kid is as lucky... There should be a complete ban [on e-scooters] and those who sell and supply and have them in possession should be prosecuted for having them. They are a complete scourge.”Seven-year-old twins Brody (left) and Ryan Dunne. Brody was struck by an e-scooter near his home in Finglas, causing him a head injury and concussion. Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times