Austin Electric Scooter Accident

Since their release last fall, the popularity of dockless electric scooters has soared in cities like Austin, Texas. The concept behind the scooters is simple: when you come across one, you can unlock it with an app on your phone and leave it wherever you like when you are done riding it.

Companies like Bird and Lime, the two most widely recognized scooter brands, claim their products are designed to cover only “the last mile” between public transportation and work. The hope was this: if more people didn’t have to fuss about inexact public transportation, more people would use it, thereby reducing a person’s overall carbon footprint.

While the idea behind the scooters is certainly appealing, the execution leaves much to be desired. Only now are people starting to realize the danger these scooters pose to pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, and riders alike. The Austin electric scooter accident attorneys at Carabin Shaw recognize the safety concerns surrounding the scooters and are here to help if you have been injured by one.

While most proponents of the scooters positively compare them to Uber – the accessibility, the simplicity – dockless electric scooters are upsetting city officials and many residents of Austin, Texas much the same as Uber first did in 2016. In fact, only a few weeks after their April 2018 launch, Bird scooters were removed from Austin streets overnight, as the city passed emergency regulations regarding where scooters could be parked. When the scooters relaunched one month later, their appeal seemed to have grown.

Over the summer of 2018, however, injuries related to electric scooters dominated local news coverage across every major city hosting them. Because there is very little that scooter companies can do to enforce certain policies – like wearing helmets and keeping one person to a scooter – the inherent danger is magnified until law enforcement can catch up. It is also becoming more common to see injured riders consulting with personal injury lawyers about the best course of action to take following a crash. Electric scooter accident attorneys in Austin are now in demand due to a rise in harmful crashes related to the machines.

Perhaps the most well-known of these incidents in Austin involves a serious collision on South Congress Avenue during the first week of August. The Austin-American Statesman reports that a woman on a Lime scooter struck a curb, flipped over the front bars, and “slammed head-first into the pavement.” As onlookers waited for an ambulance, the woman “became unresponsive and began foaming at the mouth.” All witnesses describe the crash as some variant of the word, “awful.” EMTs rushed the woman, who was critically injured, to Dell Seton Medical Hospital.

Many riders who are injured on Bird or Lime scooters feel there is no point in appealing to the company or an attorney because they accepted user agreements for the respective apps. The fact is, though, that these companies were not upfront as they could have been about the risks, nor were they thoughtful in how they launched the scooters in cities like Austin, Texas.

There may yet be some room in determining where the fault lies, especially so early in an emerging class of lawsuit that has yet to solidify a legal precedent, so it is important to bring your case to a lawyer for an expert opinion. In fact, the past two weeks has seen increasing reports of law firms taking on electric scooter claims, the outcomes of which may define new legal territory.

If you or a loved one have been involved in an electric scooter accident, we urge you to contact the Austin personal injury attorneys at Carabin Shaw to discuss your case.

Austinites are now realizing that dockless electric scooters have a different set of costs and benefits than they first believed. If you have been injured either by or on an electric scooter and are wondering whether you can be compensated for your medical expenses, the lawyers at Carabin Shaw are waiting to hear from you.

Carabin Shaw’s guarantee holds that we will represent you with compassion and respect, and we will advocate for nothing less than justice. Your initial consultation is free, and you won’t need to pay us anything unless we win your case.

To speak with a Carabin Shaw attorney in Austin, Texas, please call 512.832.1101 or toll-free at 1.800.862.1260 today.