What Causes Electric Scooter Accidents?

Driver error causes over 90 percent of the electric scooter accidents in SoCal. As these vehicles become more popular, these accidents are increasing at an alarming rate. App-based dockless rentals e-scooters, like Bird and Lime, are available at almost every downtown street corner. These vehicles, which are small like bikes and powerful like mopeds, are difficult to control. More significantly, motorists aren’t used to seeing these vehicles and don’t properly look out for them.

If improper lookout constitutes negligence, or a lack of care, an Oceanside personal injury lawyer can obtain substantial compensation for e-scooter accident victims. This compensation usually includes money for economic losses, such as medical bills, and noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering. Additional punitive damages are available as well, in some extreme cases.

Driver Impairment and Negligence

Various medical conditions inhibit the senses and make it impossible for drivers to properly look out for small e-scooters. Some of these conditions are mostly self-inflicted. Others aren’t self-inflicted, but drivers choose to ignore their impairing effects. Some examples include:

• Alcohol Use: Despite a decades-long law enforcement and judicial crackdown, alcohol is still a factor in about a third of the fatal vehicle collisions in California. The impairing effects of alcohol, which include not only sensory impairment but also a false sense of euphoria, begin with the first drink.
• Substance Abuse: Chances are, an impairing substance is in your pantry, medicine cabinet, or refrigerator at this moment. Foods and beverages laced with caffeine and/or sugar have mental and emotional effects. Over-the-counter sleep aids are very powerful and usually cause hangovers. We haven’t even mentioned semi-legal drugs, like marijuana and tobacco.
• Medical Condition: Some tortfeasors have diabetes or another serious medical condition that could cause a sudden and unexpected loss of consciousness behind the wheel. Other motorsists choose to drive with flu-like or other rather mild medical symptoms that inhibit the ability to safely operate a motor vehicle.

Partially because the effects are so serious, almost any driver impairment is negligence. An Oceanside personal injury lawyer must prove negligence by a preponderance of the evidence (more likely than not).

Injury severity is a factor as well. E-scooter riders are completely unprotected from danger in vehicle collisions. Therefore, even low-speed wrecks often cause serious injuries, such as spine or head injuries.

Negligence and Aggressive Driving

Basically the same principles apply to e-scooter accidents and aggressive driving. Excessive speed, which is a factor in about a third of fatal car crashes in San Diego, may be the best example (or worst example, depending on your perspective) of aggressive driving.

Excessive velocity increases the risk of a wreck and the force in a collision, especially with regard to e-scooter crashes.

Speeding drivers have less time to react to unexpected traffic situations or road hazards. As discussed above, an e-scooter is inherently an unexpected situation. Drivers simply aren’t used to seeing these vehicles. An e-scooter rider operating illegally, perhaps in a traffic lane, is a good example of a road hazard. In terms of accident compensation, California’s comparative fault law may come into play in such an accident. But that’s the subject of a different blog.

Speed also multiples the force in a collision, according to Newton’s Second Law of Gravity. A bit of extra force makes a big difference in an e-scooter crash, because of the aforementioned rider vulnerability.

For these reasons, a tortfeasor could be operating under the speed limit and still be “speeding” for negligence purposes. So, regardless of the tortfeasor’s velocity or degree of impairment, an Oceanside personal injury lawyer should always evaluate these cases.

Reach Out to a Diligent San Diego County Lawyer

Injury victims are entitled to substantial compensation. For a confidential consultation with an experienced personal injury lawyer in Oceanside, contact the Pursley Law Firm. We routinely handle matters throughout the Golden State.

Source:

ucsf.edu/news/2024/07/428096/electric-scooter-and-bike-accidents-are-soaring-across-us