Supreme Court: criminal sanctions for drink-driving extended to electric scooters

The criminal sanctions provided for in the Highway Code for driving while intoxicated also apply to drivers of electric scooters. This was established by the Fourth Criminal Section of the Italian Supreme Court in its ruling 37391 of 17 November, which essentially recognises the full equivalence of such electric micro-mobility vehicles to bicycles.

The equalisation had been introduced by Article 1. paragraph 75-quinquies of Law 160/2019, but according to the offender's defence it would have no value from a criminal law point of view, because the introduction of a new criminal offence would have to be by law.

The Court of Cassation considers this requirement to be fulfilled even in a case like this. The reason is that an indirect mechanism is implemented here: Article 186 of the Code provides for criminal sanctions for drivers of vehicles and Articles 46 and 47 of the Code also include bicycles, to which Law 160/2019 has equated electric scooters. For the judges, this is sufficient to apply all the rules of the Highway Code, including criminal penalties, to drivers of the latter.