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- Major cities like Washington, DC, Dallas, Los Angeles and Salt Lake City made headlines this month for scooter deaths and injuries.
- Many of these scooter companies point out that they have security tutorials, but not all scooter rental companies require users to watch the videos before driving.
- Manufacturers of electric scooters such as Lime, Bird and Skip say their machines are safe, even though most cyclists do not have to wear a helmet.
Many city dwellers have seen and perhaps even downloaded an application to rent one: there is no doubt that electric scooters storm large US cities. However, more than 70 US cities with electric scooter parks are struggling to deal with injuries, injuries and even deaths.
Emergency room doctors are seeing an increase in scooter-related injuries and two men have died while driving scooters in September, according to the Washington Post.
Electric scooter companies such as Lime and Bird often avoid legal liability for user injuries through service agreements. The Lime Use Agreement requires riders to approve that they understand that "the products are machines that could malfunction even though the products are properly maintained and that such a malfunction may cause injury," according to CNN .
"Your audience is not aware of the dangers inherent in what they consider a fun recreational vehicle," said Dr. Sam Torbati of the emergency department at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, according to CNN. "They are not safer than all other motorized vehicles and, in some ways, they are more dangerous than a bike."
Here's how four big cities are facing the scooter trend:
Washington DC.
Carlos Sanchez-Martin, 20, of Silver Spring, Maryland, died after striking an SUV in northwestern Washington, DC, while driving his Lime scooter on September 21, reported WaPo. . A witness testified that Sanchez-Martin was dragged over 20 meters by the SUV and was stuck under it when the first responders came to his aid.
Sanchez-Martin's death was the District's first "shared scooter" death since scooters began operating in the area in the spring, said Terry Owens, D.C. spokesperson for the Department of Transportation.
Washington, DC, requires electric scooter users to be over 16 years old and not wearing a helmet. Cyclists can trot on the sidewalk in parts of the district, according to WUSA9.
Dallas
Jacoby Stoneking, 24, died on September 1 while driving an electric scooter in Dallas. He was injured and was able to contact a friend to tell him that he was foot-injured, but Stoneking was found insensitive to his severely damaged scooter. minutes later, according to CBSDFW. He died later. Stoneking's family wondered if a car had been involved in the accident.
Lime and Bird have come to Dallas, where users 18 and older can get on sidewalks or highways in July, the Dallas Business Journal reported.
Los Angeles
Los Angeles has released its first conviction for the crime of "crime of fraud," city officials said Wednesday, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Twenty-eight-year-old Nicholas Kauffroath was convicted of hitting a pedestrian while his blood alcohol level was 0.279, three times the legal limit, according to the Los Angeles Times.
He has not pleaded in any way against "a charge for the use of a motorized scooter while he was under the influence and a misdemeanor flight, "reported the LA Times. Kauffroath was sentenced to three years probation and a $ 550 fine. He will also have to follow a training program for driving for three months.
The Los Angeles Police Department had to add a code so that law enforcement could track scooter accidents in September, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Salt Lake City
Reliable statistics on injuries and electric scooters will not be available until at least as many cities began licensing vehicles in 2018, but doctors at a Salt Lake City hospital reported "a 161% increase the number of visits involving scooters after statistical comparison with the same three-month period a year earlier, "reported WaPo.
The victims of a scooter accident rose from eight people between June and September 2017 to 21 during the same period in 2018, said emergency room doctors from the University of California. Utah Health, according to WaPo.
"Most of the patients with these injuries specifically stated that they were driving an electronic scooter or a rental scooter," said Troy Madsen, medical specialist at the University of Utah. , according to WaPo. "Interestingly, more than 80% of injuries this year occurred between August 15 and September 15, which would be consistent with the growing popularity and availability of electronic scooters."
Many patients have been injured trying to catch up after a fall, Madsen said, according to WaPo. Many admitted that they were under the influence and that they did not wear a helmet. (RELATED: The flu season is coming in. The CDC warns about what happened last year)
"E-scooters are a new mode of transportation and that's one of the reasons safety is our top priority at Bird," said the scooter company in response to WaPo hospital statistics. "We understand the temptation to focus on an increase in the number of incidents, but it is wrong to compare a period when there were no electronic scooters to that of today. , used by thousands of motorcyclists in dozens of US cities. "
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