Attorneys, safety advocates discuss e-scooter safety after fatal crash

AUSTIN, Texas — An e-scooter driver riding northbound on MoPac Expressway was struck and killed by multiple vehicles, as Austin-Travis County EMS (ATCEMS) confirmed to CBS Austin. The incident occurred around 45th Street at approximately 5:10 a.m. on Aug. 26, shutting down the northbound lanes for hours. The e-scooter rider, an adult, was pronounced dead at the scene. RELATED | Northbound Mopac reopens after crash involving scooter rider in central Austin One person is dead following a crash on Mopac in central Austin early Wednesday morning. Police shut down the northbound side of the freeway while they worked the scene. "This is a tragedy," said Adam Greenfield, Executive Director at Safe Streets Austin. "This person is gone, taken from their community, taken from that family without any notice." Lenore Shefman, an attorney and founder at Cyclistlaw, explains that both state and local laws for e-scooters are consistent with one another. "They're limited to roads at 35 miles an hour or below. The city of Austin in particular also has a municipal code, 12.1 and 12.2, that also limits scooter drivers, prohibits them on the highway," said Shefman. "And the state of Texas doesn't necessarily prohibit them on the highway; they limit it to the municipal code, but they do limit the speed." ALSO | APD identifies woman killed in motorcycle crash over the weekend Greenfield advocates for safe, efficient routes for all modes of transportation. "We've built highways that are highly exclusionary environments for people other than people driving, but it is still human nature to want to get to where you're going in the shortest route possible," he said. "So obviously people should not be riding scooters on MoPac. However, we have to acknowledge that the price of the decision you make on our transportation system should not be your death or your serious injury." According to Austin Transportation and Public Works' VisionZero dashboard, which tracks fatal and serious-injury crash data, at least 40 e-scooter riders have been seriously injured or killed in Austin since 2022. The data does not reveal a clear trend year to year, but as attorney Jeff Edwards, a partner at Edwards Law, attests, "The injuries are on the rise and the severity of the injuries is on the rise, and I can tell you as someone who represents victims of accidents that it's definitely increasing." One person is dead following a crash on Mopac in central Austin early Wednesday morning. Police shut down the northbound side of the freeway while they worked the scene. Both Edwards and Shefman say that more can be done to prevent more scooter deaths from occurring. Several commercial e-scooters are equipped with geofencing software, which reduces the scooters' speed or powers them down in certain zones around the city, including UT Austin's campus, certain hike and bike trails, and the Capitol grounds. When asked if e-scooter companies should expand geofencing to include highways, Shefman gave an affirmative "absolutely." "The technology is there. Putting that onus on our city to try and police who's driving a scooter when we have hundreds if not thousands, of scooters in any particular area, that is a huge burden for our taxpayers," she said. "But what we do know is that these scooter companies have dropped all of these scooters here to make a profit, and they have a responsibility to the safety of the riders as well as to our community." Edwards said that even a warning label on e-scooters could go a long way. "I think a warning is a wonderful idea. And I don't mean wonderful in, 'Boy, that'd be nice.' I mean wonderful in that it can save lives... that's something that [e-scooter companies] should look at and something that perhaps policymakers ought to look at as well." CBS Austin reached out to Austin Transportation and Public Works, but they declined a request for an interview. Page 2