ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Michelle Lynch remembers her son, Connor, as the vibrant and enthusiastic kid who was full of ideas.
“Connor was a 19-year-old. He was three weeks shy of his 20th birthday,” said Lynch. "He was going to have a wonderful life ahead of him.”
Connor was hit and killed while riding an e-scooter last year.
“Still learning how to deal with it. I don’t think it’s anything anybody can anticipate,” she said.
Yet the reports of deaths or injuries from e-scooter or e-bike crashes continue.
“It absolutely breaks my heart that there's another family going through what we have been through and something that feels avoidable,” said Lynch.
Tampa Bay 28 sat down to speak with Dr. Ebony Hunter, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Johns Hopkins All Children’s.
“We’ve seen at Johns Hopkins All Children’s a significant increase in our e-bike injuries,” said Hunter. "We can see as many as five in a shift.”
She said a lot of these kids are coming in with significant injuries like fractures. Dr. Hunter pointed to a combination of factors that make them dangerous, including inexperience with traffic laws.
"I think people are overconfident when they get on bikes, especially children who have ridden a regular bike, and they're thinking 'oh this is a normal bike,' but there’s a lot of horsepower behind these e-bikes,” said Hunter. “You can over-correct or under-correct. You can not really anticipate the breaking mechanism or the speeding up mechanism.”
While at the same time, AAA said drivers are still getting used to anticipating and responding to the fast-moving, low-profile vehicles.
When it comes to safety, Dr. Hunter said recognize the maturity level of the person on it, and of course, have the proper safety gear and training.
"Be seen, make sure you’re wearing bright colors,” said Lynch.
Lynch started the Connor Lynch Legacy Fund, a way to bring awareness to scooter safety and the rules of the road.
"Make sure you’re using your lights on your scooter to make sure that other cars can see you,” said Lynch. “Because it just takes five seconds, is all it would have taken either way of that car turning in front of Connor, and he would still be here."
Share Your Story with Mary
Mary O’Connell has a primary focus on education-related stories for Tampa Bay 28. But she also keeps an eye on public health concerns and the always-changing car insurance market. Reach out to Mary to share any of your questions or concerns.
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