An injury lawyer is raising concerns about e-bike and e-scooter safety following a serious crash in Windsor involving two 12-year-old girls.
Kotak Personal Injury Law is presenting potential legal consequences for parents amid an increase in e-scooter and e-bike incidents.
The two girls were taken to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries after an e-scooter carrying both of them collided with a minivan at McDougall Street and Elliott Street East on Monday evening.
Police say the e-scooter allegedly ran a red light while the minivan had the right of way. The driver remained at the scene.
This incident is the latest of many in Windsor-Essex, which has prompted local municipalities to review their bylaws surrounding e-bike and e-scooter usage, as well as increase enforcement among teens and their parents.
Rajiv Haté, Senior Lawyer at Kotak Personal Injury Law, says Ontario’s e-scooter pilot project requires riders to be at least 16-years-old.
“My concern here is that this is something where it could fall back on the parents for negligence by negligently allowing their children to ride and operate such an e-scooter on the roadways. And that is something that then could potentially fall on their home insurance for any sort of damages or claims that could result from an accident like this.”
He says liability will depend on the circumstances of the crash.
“We’ll have to look into whether there was any opportunity to avoid the collision and if not, then liability is likely going to fall on the girls who were riding the e-scooter and ran the red light. If the driver has sustained any injuries and that could be physical injuries, could also be psychological injuries, that could fall back on the parents or guardians.”
He says this is one of the youngest incidents he’s seen as e-scooter accidents rise.
“Most drivers can attest to the fact that when they’ve been on the road, they’ve had to suddenly stop because of an e-scooter that’s just sort of zooming by without slowing down. And often it is what looks like younger children or teenagers that are operating them, and some of them either not wearing helmets, some of them having multiple passengers on it, which is not even permitted in some areas, in some provinces.”
Haté warns that injured riders could face financial challenges if they don’t have access to auto insurance benefits to cover treatment and rehabilitation.
According to Kotak Law, e-scooter-related injuries increased by almost 40 per cent nationally over the past year.