Metropolis Restricts Scooter Leases After Drunk Driver Kills Rider in Excessive-Velocity Crash

The town of Bloomington, Indiana introduced it is going to be proscribing the usage of rentable scooters on its streets Tuesday after a suspected drunk driver swerved into the bike lane and killed a younger Indiana College pupil final month.

Nathaniel Stratton, 20, died after being struck by a suspected drunk driver whereas using a scooter via the faculty city round midnight on September 18. The motive force took off after placing Stratton, who later died from his accidents at an space hospital. Police later arrested 22-year-old Madelyn Howard and charged her with fleeing the scene of an accident, driving below the affect and murder, in line with WRTV.

Within the face of this tragedy the mayor’s workplace took swift motion… in opposition to faculty children using scooters. The mayor’s workplace made the announcement on each younger individual’s favourite social media, Fb, that renting electrical scooters could be restricted to between 5 a.m. and 11 p.m. Your entire announcement then launches into some high quality victim-blaming parading below a blanket of concern:

Following the latest tragic demise of an IU pupil in August and mounting late-night accidents associated to scooter use, the Metropolis of Bloomington has directed all scooter corporations working in Bloomington to restrict scooter working hours to five a.m. till 11 p.m. each day starting this Thursday at 11 p.m.

Scooters won’t be obtainable between the hours of 11 p.m to five a.m. each day via the winter months. These hours could also be adjusted primarily based on outcomes.

Shield your self and others whereas utilizing a scooter:

You have to be 18 to trip.

Shield your head by carrying a helmet.

Yield to pedestrians.

By no means trip drunk or different substances.

Use warning and observe native security and site visitors legal guidelines–observe all site visitors guidelines together with road indicators, site visitors lights, and cease indicators.

Journey in bike lanes or roads except in any other case directed.

Experience just one individual per scooter at a time.

Don’t textual content and trip.

Be conscious of probably harmful floor situations (uneven surfaces, moist or slippery situations, particles, grass clippings).

Don’t block sidewalks, curb cuts, entry ramps, doorways, bus stops, or site visitors at any time.

Parking a scooter on a sidewalk will restrict accessibility, so search for off-sidewalk parking.

When parking, hold the scooter or bike upright and keep away from uneven surfaces like gravel or steep inclines.

Bear in mind, Stratton’s demise was not the results of breaking any of those useful ideas for protected scootering from the Bloomington mayor’s workplace; he was hit at a excessive fee of velocity—police estimate the automobile was going 50 to 70 mph—when a suspected drunk driver in a Mercedes-Benz swerved into the bike lane and even onto the sidewalk. But it’s the scooters which are getting the crackdown remedy.

I actually surprise at a couple of issues right here: One, why the 11 p.m. curfew? It’ll be darkish in Bloomington by 5 p.m. as soon as winter actually arrives, so it’s not about visibility, and the bars don’t close in Bloomington till 3 a.m., so it’s not likely about avoiding drunk drivers. Additionally, what does the mayor assume faculty children sufficiently old to go to bars are going to do in case you take one among their much less harmful types of transportation away? They’ll drive, after all!

Your entire factor is short-sighted and unusual, however definitely offers constituents the phantasm that you just’re doing one thing with out truly offering choices to maintain all highway customers protected.