Two young men die in Milan-area e-scooter crashes within hours, raising safety alarm

A midnight crash takes a young footballer's life

Around midnight on 11 June, an e-scooter carrying two 20-year-olds collided with a small car on Viale dell’Innovazione, on the outskirts of Milan. The passenger, Eros Gagliardi, would have turned 19 in August. He was rushed to Niguarda Hospital in cardiac arrest and died shortly after. The scooter driver and the 21-year-old woman driving the car suffered minor injuries.

When they diagnosed me with myocarditis it was like a stab to the heart. I thought all my dreams would vanish and I could never play football again.

Eros had battled back from post‑Covid myocarditis that sidelined him for over a year. He returned to play for Idrostar’s under‑16 side in Cesano Boscone and was nicknamed “bomber”. His father, Rodolfo, recalled that the last message from his son was about a goal he had scored the previous week.

Another scooter victim found hours earlier

Earlier that same day, around noon, pedestrians spotted a young man lying unconscious beside his e‑scooter on a cycle path in Rodano, a town in the Milan province. Emergency services arrived with an ambulance, a medical car and a helicopter, but the 20‑year‑old Egyptian national had already gone into cardiac arrest. He was transported to Uboldo Hospital in Cernusco sul Naviglio, where he died a few hours later.

Local police in Pioltello are investigating all possibilities: a sudden illness, a fall, or a collision with another vehicle, yet no traces of an impact have been found. Surveillance camera footage has been requested to clarify the sequence.

A father’s grief and call for change

In the Bicocca district, where the Gagliardi family lives, around 200 young people gathered for an impromptu memorial. Rodolfo Gagliardi spoke briefly between embraces.

If my son had worn a helmet maybe we wouldn’t be here. But those things are walking coffins – I’d ban them.

He described Eros as “my son, my brother, my best friend”. Neighbours said the boy was known to everyone in the neighbourhood.

Rising fatality toll pushes for action

The two e‑scooter deaths bring the 2026 total to six, according to data from the Asaps‑Sapidata observatory. Since 2020, 97 people have died in accidents involving these vehicles in Italy, with yearly counts rising from 1 in 2020 to a peak of 23 in 2024.

Giordano Melluso, Asaps president, called for an urgent dialogue between institutions, local authorities and sector operators. No new regulations have been announced, but the clustering of two fatal incidents on the same day is already fueling public debate over mandatory helmet use and stricter enforcement.

The backstory of a fighter

Eros Gagliardi’s story had been told once before, in a 2022 interview with the youth‑football outlet “Sprint e Sport”. After his myocarditis diagnosis – which he described as a “stab to the heart” – he spent months under specialist care at Milan’s Buzzi and San Raffaele hospitals, supported by his parents. The sporting director of Idrostar eventually cleared him to play, and he returned to the pitch determined to become a professional.