There’s been no word yet if another vehicle was involved, but a scooter rider – described as a man around 60 years old – fell in the 8400 block of 1st Avenue South [vicinity map], just west of Highway 509, and was seriously hurt. Medics just told dispatch he is regaining consciousness, but that stretch of 1st is blocked by the response for now.
In Vancouver BC all the scooters had helmets hanging from them. Wish they would mandate that here. On one level it’s off-putting because they’re not clean but I’d rather have someone’s gross dry sweat on me vs a collapsed indent in my skull. It’s how my sister died and it didn’t take much.
The rider WAS wearing a helmet; the medic who told dispatch that he was regaining consciousness noted that his helmet “had a big crack” as in, head hit ground.
I was mostly using this as an excuse to talk about what I saw in Vancouver. Happy to hear he was wearing a helmet!
I was almost hit by a very young scooter rider on the sidewalk in front of Burien PCC. Rider was going as fast as he could + rude after I yelled after him. Also, another small combustion motorcycle on the sidewalk by Safeway on Roxbury. Small young rider. Accident waiting to happen. Ireland has restricted e-scooters to over 15 years of age. I realize that would not help this gentleman in his 60s
Mandatory helmet use law is needed, as the WSB indicated the individual involved was wearing a helmet and if they had not been likely a much worse outcome could have resulted.
The history of mandatory helmet laws is their use by police as cover for racial profiling. Hence their repeal in recent years.
Electric scooters are fundamentally unsafe.
We’ve come so far with safe bicycle practices only to negate it all for a buck with scooters. Mobility solutions & business models collide for record ER visits.
Do you know what happened on Meyers Way Saturday around 6 pm? There were so many bikes and a huge firetruck response and someone on the ground but I did not see any info.
I suspected as much – it was the Dead Baby Downhill. Didn’t get advance word of it this year.
https://www.thestranger.com/city/photos-the-30th-annual-dead-baby-downhill-race/
Don’t know if the response you saw had anything to do with it, though.
It will be a beautiful day when all modes of transportation have equal access to safe infrastructure, rather than continuing the tired old practice of blaming the victim (“what was he wearing on his head?”) or rushing to blame the mode of transportation itself.
I hope the rider makes a full recovery, and is able to return to making his way around town using the transportation that best suits him.
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