Are Electric Scooters or E-Scooters Safe?

Chances are that if you live in a major metropolitan area in the U.S., you’ve seen a new type of vehicle zipping around the streets and sidewalks recently. They’re taking people places faster, reducing traffic and making money — and also leading to thousands of injuries, some serious.

They’re called e-scooters, or electric scooters. Companies like Lime and Bird have been setting up shop in cities across the country, from New York to San Francisco, offering convenient rides for $1 to start. The most convenient part? No docking stations — riders just drop them off anywhere out of the right-of-way and contractors for the company collect them later for charging. They’ve exploded in popularity in the last two years.

However, one thing they don’t come with is helmets. And with speeds up to 15 miles per hour, that can mean some serious injuries, or even death. With ever-more scooters appearing in cities, that begs the question: who is responsible when someone is seriously hurt?

The toll so far

The numbers are clear: A Consumer Reports survey of 110 hospitals in early 2019 found at least 1,500 injuries due to e-scooter accidents in the last two years. That’s in the approximately 47 cities where e-scooter companies operate so far.

A handful of deaths can also be directly attributed to e-scooter accidents. A rider died in Washington, D.C.’s Dupont Circle in September 2018 after being hit by an SUV; another died in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in April after colliding with a car, according to the Florida Sun-Sentinel; and a 5-year-old boy died after falling off an electric scooter he was riding with his mother in April in Tulsa, Oklahoma when she rode into oncoming traffic and tried to evade a car, according to CNN.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took a look at accident statistics in the booming trend, focusing on Austin, Texas from September to November 2018. The study found that 20 out of 100,000 rides results in injury, half of which were serious injuries. Only one out of 190 injured scooter riders was wearing a helmet, according to the study. Half of the people injured said a street condition like a pothole or a crack contributed to the accident.

Liability

These injuries come with hospital bills, time off work and sometimes permanent damage. Unsurprisingly, there have already been disputes about who should pay for all that disruption.

When users sign up for the service via an app, there is a safety briefing telling them to wear helmets while riding. There are no helmets with the bikes when people go to use them, however, and few people carry helmets with them at all times. The user agreement also includes a statement that the rider assumes all risks for injuries or medical conditions, according to CityLab.

However, some users and lawyers are saying that doesn’t exempt the companies from responsibility for a product that has clearly led to a rise in injury and death. A group of nine plaintiffs in Los Angeles filed a class-action lawsuit against five e-scooter companies, alleging product liability, negligence, public nuisance, breach of warranty and aiding and abetting assault, among other charges. The lawsuit, filed in October, seeks punitive and compensatory damages.

However, cities are tied into it as well. While the companies have sometimes set up shop without a contract from the city, other cities have openly contracted with the companies as transportation providers, as in the case of Fort Lauderdale and, soon, Chicago. In that case, the cities could be held liable for contracting with an unsafe party.

Lawyers have said the fact that the apps require users to waive liability before using one make it harder to seek relief after an injury, according to a Bloomberg report, but some are willing to try because of the extent of the injuries.

The Uber problem

There’s also questions about the legality of the e-scooter companies’ employment practices and liability waivers. Close to a decade ago, ridesharing Uber and Lyft shook up the taxi industry with their app-based systems, leaving lawyers and regulators scrambling with how to deal with them and make the playing field level for taxis, contractors, employees and riders.

Today, Uber and Lyft have to play much more by traditional rules after court rulings like the one in California that makes it harder for the company to classify its drivers as independent contractors. Facing accidents by drivers and rider injuries, the companies are also having to lay out more plans for insuring drivers and cover passenger injuries under a liability policy.

A lawsuit was filed in California against E-scooter company Bird on April 30, alleging that it was misclassifying employees as independent contractors. Currently, the company pays independent contractors to drive around, pick up scooters and charge them. Some companies are avoiding the legal tangle altogether — e-scooter company Spin dissolved its independent contractor status and hired employees instead.

Part of the development of technology is mishaps, but things won’t change for the better unless people hold companies responsible. That includes people who are injured taking the steps to stand up to companies who don’t want to take responsibility for their actions.