Complex Legal Issues of Electric Scooter Accidents
Have you seen electric scooters roaming around the city lately? Electric scooters fill Los Angeles and many other cities in South California. People are loving these scooters because they provide an alternative to transportation that is convenient, cheap and fast. Electric scooters travel up to 15 mph. Companies like Bird and Lime brought these motorized scooters into American cities. And recently, Uber and Lyft joined in with their own scooters across cities. While convenient, electric scooter accidents are common and can cause serious harm. This article sheds light on to a new type of personal injury accident that was not previously dealt with legally.
An overview of electric scooters
The ride share model used by Lyft and Uber showed a lot of success. Therefore, companies began to use that model in electric scooters as well. If you go to Los Angeles, you will see electric scooters owned by Lime, Bird, Lyft and Uber all over the city. If you open the map, you will see a scooter in every block of the street. The way they work is that you can rent a scooter by downloading an app and simply scanning the code on the scooter. The costs for these scooters vary based on the company but they are relatively very cheap. The convenient part of this is that there is no pickup or drop off location for these scooters. You can pick one from wherever you are and drop it off wherever you are.
Factors that make electric scooters dangerous
While it may seem that electric scooters are safe and not dangerous, you are very wrong. There are so many electric scooter accidents that take place every day in our cities. Electric scooters are not as safe as you may think. They can go very fast on only two wheels increasing the probability of an accident. If you ever ridden one of these scooters, you know that they are neither stable nor easy to ride. In fact, you can lose control and your balance very easily on these scooters. Second, they have limited protection. California still does not have laws that require riders to wear helmets when they ride electric scooters. And the scooters are not manufactured with safety measures in case of a collision. Third, defect to these scooters can happen very quickly because there is no systemic maintenance. They are not checked for frequent maintenance. Hence, riders may use a scooter that has deflated tires, worn out breaks or a defective motor.
Types of accidents that may occur
People ride electric scooters on the road with other motor vehicles like cars and buses. So the most obvious electric scooter accident that can occur is a collision. Imagine how catastrophic colliding with a car and you on an electric scooter. You can collide with a car due to a malfunction to the scooter that disallows you to stop and break in time. Or you can collide with a pedestrian walking. You can be hit by a car due to visibility. And many other accidents. The devastation aspect of these accidents are the injuries. You are extremely likely to sustain serious and fatal injuries if you collide with a car while on the scooter. The reason for that is that a scooter is a lot smaller in size than a car. Further, you are not protected by anything on the scooter as you would be if you were driving a car.
Have you been involved in an accident? Call Napolin Law Firm Today
The team at Napolin Law is experienced in dealing with complex cases that involve various parties and potentially not straight forward liabilities. Therefore, if you or someone you know ever been in an electric scooter accident, make sure to call us. Whatever the type of accident it were, call us to receive your free consultation and learn how to move forward.