Electric scooters one of the newest trends in public transportation
Currently, electric scooters are available for rent in two major Tennessee cities: Nashville and Memphis. You can rent a scooter through Bird or Lyft in Nashville. In Memphis, Bird is the only electric scooter vendor available for now.
Although many are excited about this new transportation option, many more find the scooters bothersome and, as the reports of injuries continue to roll in, dangerous.
What is electric scooter sharing?
The concept has been around for a while with bicycles. You pay a vendor, have a ride around or to your destination, and return the bike to a specific location.
An easy, convenient and brilliant idea, right? Especially since most people have known how to ride a bike for decades and there’s next to no training involved.
Electric scooters, on the other hand, take some getting used to, but once you pay your money, it’s more of a “jump on and go” situation. Learning as you go on the sidewalks and streets surrounded by pedestrians and cars sounds like a bit of a recipe for disaster.
And, as we’ve found out, it definitely has been.
Electric scooter accidents
A growing number of accidents are being reported as a result of these electric scooters.
Some cases involve personal injury occurring as a result of getting hit or falling off, but a surprising number of pedestrians are being injured by being struck by one of the riders or tripping and falling over scooters that riders leave in walkways.
The injuries being reported are not just your run-of-the-mill scrapes and bruises. A large percentage of these injuries involve broken bones. Many also involve head injuries.
In May of last year in Nashville, TN, two women riding on scooters were critically injured when a car ran into them in an intersection. Unfortunately, neither of them were wearing helmets.
As with the introduction of anything new, there’s a bit of trial and error in the beginning. The consequences of the trial and error of electric scooters is resulting in unfortunate injuries. Major strides need to be taken to regulate the instruction, use and safety of these motorized scooters.
