Greece is introducing a package of road traffic reforms ahead of the summer tourist season that will ban rental companies from providing motorcycles, scooters or quad bikes without helmets, require five years of licence-holding before renting a quad bike, and prohibit minors from riding electric scooters anywhere in the country, according to Deputy Transport Minister Konstantinos Kyranakis.
Mr. Kyranakis, speaking on state broadcaster ERT, said responsibility for helmet compliance will fall on rental operators rather than customers.
Rental companies will also be required to carry liability insurance covering accident claims and to designate parking areas for scooters, clearing improperly parked vehicles from streets and pavements each day.
The changes come as Greece is already recording tourist fatalities linked to rental vehicle accidents this season — including a British father killed in an ATV crash on Corfu last month. The new rules target a market that draws thousands of inexperienced riders to narrow island roads each summer, a pattern safety authorities have flagged repeatedly without producing binding national regulation until now.