It’s hard to remember a more significant change to our Los Angeles city landscape than the seemingly instantaneous arrival of the electric scooters. If you live in Santa Monica, Venice, Culver City, Koreatown, or other affected parts of the city, you now see Bird and Lime electric scooters everywhere you look. Parked on sidewalks, dumped on lawns, zooming on the streets and on the sidewalks, they are indeed ubiquitous.
While there may be some positive aspects to the introduction of smaller, alternative vehicles to our traffic-choked city, the truth is that – just as with drivers and motorcyclists – there are safe operators of electric scooters, and there are others who break the laws and don’t watch out for pedestrians.
Although the impact of a bird scooter in a collision with a pedestrian is probably going to be less severe on average than getting hit by a car or truck, a dangerous scooter rider running into a pedestrian in an intersection or on the sidewalk can still cause significant injury and pain and suffering, especially when the victim is elderly, a child, or experiences a serious fall or other injury.
In such cases, you as the pedestrian have the right to take legal action against the scooter rider (and potentially the scooter company) for your injuries, which can include financial recovery for all of your medical costs, any lost income, and the pain and suffering you experienced.
Winning Your Pedestrian Scooter Accident Case in Los Angeles
If you experienced injury as a pedestrian in a collision with an electric scooter in Los Angeles, the key to winning your personal injury claim will be to show that the scooter operator failed to take reasonable care in operating the scooter and that you were foreseeably injured as a result.
There are numerous ways to show that an electric scooter operator (or the scooter company) injured you as a result of failing to take reasonable care. Here are just a few:
- A scooter operator riding on the sidewalk
- Riding in other areas that are only for pedestrians
- Leaving a scooter in a walkway or other dangerous spot where you tripped over it
- Riding and texting, taking pictures, or any other distracted riding
- Failing to stop at red lights and stop signs
- Not looking where he or she is going on the scooter
- Any other violation of law or otherwise careless act
If you have been injured as a pedestrian by a scooter operator, contact a personal injury attorney as soon as possible afterwards to discuss your accident. Gathering the evidence necessary to prove your claim may require time-sensitive actions, such as getting user data from the scooter company, speaking to eyewitnesses, and taking photographic evidence.
Contact a Los Angeles Pedestrian Accident Attorney Today
If you have been the victim of a pedestrian accident with a car, truck, motorcyclist, bicyclist, or scooter in California, the personal injury team at LawPLA who can help you assess your situation and understand what legal options are available to you for financial recovery. Contact LawPLA today to schedule a consultation to discuss your pedestrian accident, and what we may be able to do on your behalf.
