LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — There’s been a big uptick in electrical scooter and bicycle-related deaths. Based on the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Division, deadly collisions are up 200%, in comparison with this time final 12 months.
This week, a person died and a teen was hospitalized following a crash involving two electrical scooters close to West Heat Springs Highway and South Torrey Pines Drive. Final month, a 62-year-old man died following an electrical bike crash on the intersection of Jones Boulevard and Elkhorn Highway.
Regardless of the troubling statistics and security challenges, e-bikes and scooters stay in style. One bicycle retailer supervisor informed KLAS that though the shop sells numerous forms of bicycles, e-bikes make up the vast majority of his gross sales, including that the quantity solely continues to rise.
(Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Division)
“Thirty percent of our inventory and probably 20% of our sales are e-bikes,” Shaun Fowler, retailer supervisor for Trek Bicycle Las Vegas West, informed 8 Information Now. “It’s gone up significantly because it lets regular people just go further faster.”
Fowler continued, “People now too are considering it another form of transportation, so not just weekend but maybe they’re going to park their car a couple of days a week and use it as transportation.”
Lengthy-time bike owner Brad Curtis informed KLAS it took him some convincing to get onboard with the thought of an electrical bike.
“When I turned 60, my kids bought me an electric bike because I was refusing to go for it,” Curtis mentioned.
Quick ahead to right now, he loves it attributable to its expanded capabilities. The avid biker additionally rides bikes and emphasizes the significance of defensive driving.
“Sometimes, they just don’t see you,” he mentioned. “I’ve been cut off a thousand times, right? So, you have to ride really defensively.”
In the meantime, Trek retailer supervisor Fowler recommends specializing in offensive driving.
“Be aggressive like a car,” he suggested. “Don’t scoot all the way over. Give yourself space. Cars are supposed to stay three feet away from you.”
In Nevada, state legislation requires bike riders to comply with the identical visitors legal guidelines as different drivers, together with pace limits and right-of-way legal guidelines.
