Electric Scooters Are Popping Up in Cities Across the Country. But Are They Safe?

AUSTIN, Texas — University of Texas star baseball shortstop David Hamilton hit a pothole riding an electric scooter, tearing his Achilles tendon and requiring surgery. He’ll miss the season. Cristal Glangchai, the CEO for a nonprofit, hit a rock riding her scooter, landing her on the pavement just blocks from home. “I lost control and ended up getting a concussion and a broken rib,” said Glangchai, a 41-year-old mother of four. And Austin’s first scooter-related death occurred over the weekend. Police identified the scooter rider as Mark Sands, a 21-year-old UT student from Ireland, who died Saturday, just one day after suffering critical injuries when the electric scooter he was riding collided with a car. As many as 14,000 dockless electric scooters are on the streets of Austin, whose 326 square miles are home to almost 1 million people. That likely makes Austin one of the cities with the highest scooter-to-citizen ratio in the nation — though the electric vehicles are also rapidly multiplying on the streets and sidewalks of Atlanta, San Diego, Nashville and Washington. Scooter rental companies are proliferating in Austin and across the country. Ten companies have licenses to operate now within Austin, and at least 1,200 more electric scooters are poised to appear in Austin whenever already-licensed operators deploy them. But city leaders and citizens, in Austin and nationwide, are worried about injuries for both users and pedestrians...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized public health Source Type: news