In the past year, motorists, pedestrians, and politicians across the country have been dodging motorized scooters. Reports of people being injured by electric scooters are becoming increasingly common. Now, the manufacturers and users of the scooters are dodging personal injury lawyers. When they first appeared, the scooters were accidents waiting to happen. Now, accidents have indeed happened, and personal injury lawyers are sensing a fresh source of contingency fees.
In the past year, motorists, pedestrians, and politicians across the country have been dodging motorized scooters. Reports of people being injured by electric scooters are becoming increasingly common. Now, the manufacturers and users of the scooters are dodging personal injury lawyers. When they first appeared, the scooters were accidents waiting to happen. Now, accidents have indeed happened, and personal injury lawyers are sensing a fresh source of contingency fees.
Once the app is installed on your smartphone, for a charge of a dollar, plus 15 cents per minute, an electric scooter can be rented from a company like Lime or Bird. When a user is done using a rented scooter, he or she need only leave it at their destination. They’re actually a convenient form of transportation for many people, but they’re something more than a dangerous nuisance for others, especially when scooter users ride on sidewalks. With a top speed of 15 mph, they can cause serious injuries to riders and pedestrians. To date, there haven’t been any reported electric scooter fatalities, but the first one seems inevitable.
Electric Scooter Accidents
Motorists can be aggressive, and many just aren’t used to sharing the limited space that’s available on a road unless there are dedicated bike lanes. What also comes to issue is that electric scooters present low and narrow profiles in traffic. Drivers often don’t see them, or when they do see them, it’s too late to avoid a collision. Indeed, personal injury lawyers have brought claims involving scooter riders who have been injured in crashes with motor vehicles, and there will be more as scooters just now arrived in cities such as Minneapolis and are expected to arrive in major cities where they don’t exist yet such as Philadelphia.
Next Targets – Scooter Rental Companies Themselves
One councilman in Cincinnati is already calling for holding scooter companies liable for injuries, and lawyers are now talking about single scooter crashes involving poor maintenance and defective scooters. Tires, brakes and road conditions contribute to these accidents. Bird’s user agreement is 16 pages in length. Lime’s is 46. It’s unlikely that any Bird or Lime customer has ever read these. They’re in existence for lawyers and judges. Regardless of product liability or negligent maintenance concerns, people rent the scooters in “as is” condition and agree to ride them at their own risk. Bird riders agree to limit Bird’s liability to $100.
A pedestrian being hit by an electric scooter that’s traveling at 15 mph is like getting blindsided by an NHL defenseman. What’s particularly difficult for pedestrians is that it’s nearly impossible for them to identify the at-fault scooter rider if he or she simply rides away. No license is required, and there isn’t even a license plate for anybody to try and get the number of. It’s unlikely that there will be any kind of a liability insurance coverage under these circumstances as insurers are excluding electronic scooters from coverage as fast as they can. That leaves a gigantic coverage gap for innocent pedestrians. Ironically, scooter riders who are hit by cars have the best chance of obtaining at least some compensation for their injuries and damages.
As electronic scooters proliferate across the country, the number of uninsured users on roadways and sidewalks is going to increase exponentially. The law will catch up with Lime, Bird and their competitors soon, both locally and on a statewide basis. More responsibility will likely be put on their shoulders, the shoulders of their competitors, and their users.
Join the conversation!