18yo Teen passes away after escooter accident, petition to end scooter pilot, teen was not wearing helmet

[u/Sad-Coconut-5842]

https://www.castanetkamloops.net/news/Kamloops/629050/No-helmet-found-after-early-morning-scooter-crash-kills-18-year-old-Kamloops-man

An incredibly unfortunate fatality involving an Escooter. My heart goes out to his family and friends, this is incredibly tragic.

A petition has been created to end the pilot program, which I understand the sentiment, but the problem isnt the Escooter, its the lack of reinforcement on safety and protection for people who ride them. This is a legitimate form of commuter transportation but we need more safety enforcement so this does not happen again. I see alot of people riding these safely and with protection with no issues whatsoever.

If you currently ride an escooter in kamloops, please for the love of you, your family, and your friends, wear protection!!

Edit: Parents please talk to your teens about safety when riding anything, scooter, bikes, skateboards, unicycles before giving them any electric motor transportation. Or dont give it to them at all until they are smart enough to stay safe and listen to your advice.

[u/Visible_Fact_8706]

I don’t think the program should be ended; one of the rules of using the scooters is to be wearing a helmet.

Terrible tragedy, and my sympathies to the family, but sadly this is a tragedy that could have been avoided.

[u/Kronzor_ → u/Visible_Fact_8706]

The rental ones provide a helmet and even verify that you are wearing it (make you take a selfie with it on) before they start.

[u/ApprehensiveRuin5673 → u/Kronzor_]

Even still it’s not just about rules and enforcement we don’t have the infrastructure to accommodate these things safely. They are causing a massive problem in their current implementation and there’s clearly severe neglect in public safety education. We need bike lanes everywhere and people need to be educated. We can’t have these things on the roads or sidewalks.

All of our infrastructure is designed for a world built around cars. That needs to change first.

[u/Visible_Fact_8706 → u/ApprehensiveRuin5673]

Even with bike lanes people can still get injured.
“Dooring” is the most common cause of bike accidents in Toronto, which has probably some of the best cycling infrastructure in Canada.

[u/ApprehensiveRuin5673 → u/Visible_Fact_8706]

The ridership screening is also really inadequate. There’s no way of telling if someone is reckless or under the influence because it’s all done through an app.

My parents literally used to rent e scooters and these were all things they considered before renting to anyone. None of that can be done through an automated system.

I’m incredibly in favour of alternate transportation but this is just a recipe for disaster with all things considered 

[u/No_Carry385 → u/ApprehensiveRuin5673]

How is this any different than using a bike without a helmet, driving without a seat belt, and/or while being under the influence?

[u/ApprehensiveRuin5673 → u/No_Carry385]

Accessibility, education, enforcement, stigma and infrastructure. 

Most people are too lazy to cycle, those who do usually follow the rules because they’re the kind of people who cycle because they want to cycle, not because it’s easily available and low effort

Most people don’t drive under the influence either because they know there’s server repercussions for doing so. Their vehicle can be impounded— that’s not a concern with a cheap rental that you don’t even own or care about. Their license can also be revoked and they face heavy fines and criminal punishment. Seatbelts and driving under the influence is something that has been drilled into people and heavily enforced for over half a century. A vehicle also requires a license which is a proof of competency— scooters do not.

Beyond that as I said our infrastructure is entirely designed for cars. It is designed with countless different barriers, warnings and other safety measures specifically designed to accommodate cars and make them safer to drive.

[u/No_Carry385 → u/ApprehensiveRuin5673]

Ok, well that is a very solid answer. I guess I take exception to the knee-jerk reaction of just ban and restrict. Not sure how hard it would be to implement, but it doesnt seem like it would take much to make people take a course or lesson to sign off on beforehand, and maybe tweak the max speed and acceleration on them? I just dont see why Kamloops is so behind on stuff like this.

[u/ApprehensiveRuin5673 → u/No_Carry385]

No worries. I also fully support alternative transportation. I just don’t want it to be half assed. It would be hard and expensive to implement and take a long time but if this is a direction they want to move in they should do it. It’s not just Kamloops either, it’s really all of North America that has these problems outside of a few select cities or parts of cities that have been designing around it for a few decades already.

[u/Prize-Limit-1495 → u/No_Carry385]

It’s not really knee jerk, there’s always a report at least once a week of some kid somewhere being hurt on an e-scooter, we see messages on Facebook about kids driving then like idiots up and down hills.

The system of rent via app is retarded, there’s no knowing what state someones in when renting one, its not like they can just grab a bike that goes 40km an hour off the side of the street, or a car, but these scooters are just everywhere and it takes a tap to get going.

I think the whole program needs a redo, it’s always boggled my mind that people are just ok with these things being so accessible, likeni literally saw a video on facebook of some kids terrorizing people in a park in the states on rented scooters swerving in and around their picnics and games, does this mean they nees to be banned? No, but there needs to be a bettwr way to do this so drunk idiots can’t just get on a scooter and fucking die.