Category Archives: Scooter accidents

What to Do About the Nationwide Increase in Electric Scooter Accidents

26 June
2020

Electric scooters, also known as e-scooters, are becoming increasingly popular in several cities throughout the United States. However, there are risks associated with riding this convenient form of transportation. In fact, the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission’s National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) research showed that electric scooters can result in serious internal injuries, concussions, traumatic brain injuries, and are over three times as likely to involve pedestrians who also suffer serious injuries. Learn more about your legal rights if you suffered any kind of injuries or losses because of an electric scooter accident.

Causes of Electric Scooter Crashes

There are several different causes of electric scooter crashes that can result in catastrophic injuries or even death. Some of the most common causes include the following:

  • Road hazards such as debris and potholes which pose significant dangers to electric scooter riders
  • Lack of visibility of electric scooter riders to other drivers on the roadways
  • Manufacturing defects and flaws in electric scooters
  • Being “doored” by vehicles when electric scooters attempt to ride between lanes on the road

Types of Electric Scooter Injuries

Electric scooter accidents often result in serious injuries or even death. Consumer Reports research shows that over 1,500 people suffered injuries as a result of either E-bike or electric scooter accidents. The types of electric scooter injuries suffered in an accident are typically severe and often include traumatic brain injuries, concussions, internal organ damage and bleeding, nerve damage, bruising, lacerations, bilateral forearm fractures, nasal fractures, broken or fractured bones, spinal cord injuries, head and neck injuries, or death.

Electric Scooter Safety Precautions

If you ride an electric scooter, there are safety precautions you can take to not be included in the statistics of increasing accidents involving this form of transportation. Some of the best practices involving electric scooter safety include always wearing a helmet, following the rules of the road to ensure that other drivers and pedestrians see you, and always making the assumption that no one else can see you, and riding defensively. Always take safety precautions to minimize the opportunity for any serious accident to occur.

Determining Liability

If you do suffer injuries as a result of an accident involving an electric scooter, the determination of liability can often be legally challenging and complex. Oftentimes, an independent investigation is needed in order to accurately determine liability. Visiting with an experienced attorney can help ensure that a correct determination of liability occurs, as well as seeing to it that you do not miss any statute of limitations deadlines that would prevent you from receiving compensation for your injuries and losses.

Contact an Experienced Personal Injury Attorney

If you suffered injuries because of an electric scooter accident, you may face substantial medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. Contact The Law Office of Daniel A. Rose as soon as possible, and our experienced accident lawyers will help ensure your legal rights remain protected and help you build a strong personal injury case. Call for a free consultation today at 415-946-8900 or visit us online.

Scooter Accidents in San Francisco Bay Area | Liability and Insurance Issues

15 June
2018

Motorized scooter use in the San Francisco Bay Area is rapidly becoming a primary form of local transportation. Electric scooter on-demand rental companies such as Bird and LimeBike have infused the Bay Area with thousands of scooters to fill an ever-increasing consumer demand heightened by over-burdened and inadequate mass transportation services.  As a San Francisco pedestrian, bicycle and scooter accident lawyer, I see many liability insurance issues raised by the increased use of scooters.

By FASTILY [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia CommonsAlong with this increased scooter use inevitably comes an increase in injury accidents involving scooters. Such accidents may involve collisions between scooters and pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcycles, automobiles, or other scooters. Although scooters are prohibited by law from driving on sidewalks pursuant to California Vehicle Code (CVC) Section 21235(g), news reports indicate that scooters are being ridden to a very large degree on sidewalks, raising the risk of injurious collisions between scooters and pedestrians. Unless local law otherwise more strictly prohibits, California State law allows scooters to be operated in bicycle lanes, and in fact mandates they be ridden in Class II bicycle lanes if such lanes exist, and where such bicycle lane does not exist the scooter may be operated on the road as long as the speed limit on the road is 25 mph or less. (CVC 21229, 21230.) Thus, scooter ridership also raises the risk of injurious collisions between scooters and bicycles, and scooters and motorists. San Francisco trauma hospitals have noticed an increase in scooter related serious injuries and are setting up a scooter-related injury tracking system, as reported by the New York Times.

Unfortunately, there are some significant gaps in liability and uninsured motorist insurance coverage for accidents involving scooters. In California, there is no requirement that motorized scooters (as distinguished from mopeds) be registered or that the scooter or scooter operator carry liability insurance. Based upon my research, I am not aware of any scooter rental companies which provide their users with any significant liability insurance. This would leave someone injured due to a collision with a scooter to look to the scooter operator’s homeowners or renters insurance, as is the case when someone is injured due to the negligence of a bicyclist, or perhaps to the scooter operator’s personal assets if they are substantial.

While pedestrians, bicyclists and scooter operators may utilize whatever uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) insurance they may have on their motor vehicle policies should they be injured in an accident for which the operator of a motor vehicle is at fault, their UM/UIM coverage almost certainly will not apply when injured by the operator of a scooter. This is because California law requires only that insurers offer, in their motor vehicle policies, UM/UIM coverage for liability arising out of the use of a motor vehicle, and the Insurance Code limits its definition of “motor vehicle” to include only those vehicles which are required to be registered under California State law, and scooters are not required to be so registered. (California Insurance Code 11580.2, 11580.06.)

Another potential source of recovery for those injured in scooter accidents are the scooter rental companies or manufacturers where the accident was caused by a scooter’s mechanical defect or malfunction, or where the scooter was illegally rented to an unlicensed and un-permitted driver.  (An operator of a motorized scooter must possess a valid drivers license or instruction permit [CVC 21235(d)].)