Highland Village reports an increase in scooter-involved accidents in comparison to last year.
“These e-scooters became Christmas gifts, and then it kind of increased throughout the spring,” said Highland Village Mayor Dan Jaworski. “And then, of course, with school letting out, I think there were probably a lot of kids that got them as birthday presents in the school year, gifts, that kind of thing.”
Complaints from residents have equally increased.
"They see kids all over the city, that they're not observing just the basic traffic laws there. They're passing through stop signs. They're not crossing streets at crosswalks. They're just going right across the middle of a street," Jaworski said.
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The rise of electric scooters in the suburbs has led to serious consequences in the past week. According to Jaworski, police are investigating what led to a teen falling off his e-scooter last Monday.
“He apparently hit his head on the pavement; was unconscious. A driver coming home saw him rendered aid,” Jaworski said. “He regained consciousness and they were able to find out where his address was, contact parents, and he was transported."
According to Jaworski, the teen is in a medically induced coma.
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Three days later, officers were called out to the intersection of Highland Shores Boulevard and Community Center Road. The incident involved two girls on one scooter and a driver.
According to information from the city, “a Frontier van driving westbound on Highland Shores Blvd. entered the crosswalk while the scooter was attempting to cross. The driver of the scooter was wearing a helmet; the passenger was not. The passenger jumped off before the scooter drove into the side of the Frontier van. The passenger did not sustain any injuries. The driver of the scooter was transported by the Highland Village Fire Department to Children's Medical Center Plano where she was evaluated and released.”
It is unclear if the driver of the vehicle was cited. However, according to Jaworski, e-scooters do not have the right of way.
"It would be just like any other kind of vehicle, whether it was a golf cart or motorcycle, or moped. You have to observe right of way just like a car does," Jaworski said.
On Sunday night, police were called to yet another crash.
Jaworski said he got word, “There was another accident last night in one of our shopping centers where a rider was hit by a car as well.”
While the use of e-scooters is legal in certain areas of Highland Village, Jaworski said police will crack down on riders. The city council is also exploring the option of updating its ordinance for motorized vehicles.
"We're also going to be updating the ordinance to be a tool to help us enforce better," Jaworski said. "The ordinance was written many, many years ago before these specific e-scooters came out. So, we want to make sure that what we have in place today addresses all of the new developments in scooters over the last 10 or 12 years.”
“The helmet is the one thing that we can enforce, and police will be enforcing that strictly,” Jaworski said.
The city council will also explore the idea of requiring permits and safety inspections for e-scooters as it does for golf carts.
"We want to get them registered. We are we have a golf court ordinance where we require that when you buy a golf cart, you have to have it registered with the city. That way we can do a safety inspection," Jaworski said. "Same thing with scooters. We want to make sure the kids and the parents all know what the rules are."
A registered scooter, Jaworski said, could have helped officers identify the rider found unconscious by a passerby last Monday.
"If that scooter had been registered, we could have at least tied the scooter, the registration number, to a parent. And it would have sped up the process of contacting the parent."
“We want to make sure we have a plan in place for when school starts so that kids can continue to ride their scooters and have fun and have that sense of independence that they want that their parents want to give them. But parents have to get engaged and know what the laws are around the operation of these things,” Jaworski said.
