#8 Lisa Banes While en route to see her wife at a dinner
party, on June the 4th of 2021, actor Lisa Banes was wiped out by an electric scooter,
in an Upper West Side neighborhood of New York.
Known for her work in “Gone Girl” and “Cocktail”, Banes was only visiting the
city from her home in Los Angeles.
As per eyewitness reports, she was crossing the street when a red and black electric scooter
ran a red light straight into her.
The driver of the scooter, who did not have the right of way, immediately fled the scene.
The collision left Banes with a severe brain injury and she was rushed to the hospital,
where she died 10 days later.
She was one of 60 pedestrian fatalities in New York City over the previous year, which
marked an 87% increase to the year before.
Banes’s influence in the world of theatre, film and Broadway was commemorated on social
media through an outpouring of love and memories from past colleagues and friends.
#7 Emily Hartridge Emily Hartridge was a popular British YouTube
star and TV presenter, who started her career in 2012 making a series of vlogs titled “Ten
Reasons Why...”
Her content, shared to more than 354,000 subscribers, contained topics ranging from relationships
to mental health and her personal life.
She broke into the TV world by securing a spot as host to Channel 4’s “Oh Sht I’m
30”, in 2016.
She even received The Mind Media Award, a few years later, for her portrayals of mental
health in the media.
Unfortunately, this impressive forward momentum came to tragic halt, in July of 2019, following
an electric scooter crash.
Hartridge was going through the Queen’s Circus roundabout, in London, when she lost
control of her electric scooter and crashed into a transportation truck.
She was thrown under the truck and died at the scene, marking her as the first reported
fatality caused by an electric scooter crash in England.
The crash was ruled as accidental and a coroner determined the loss of control was due to
her “unsuitably” driving the electric scooter at too high a speed, with an underinflated
tire.
At the time, electric scooters were illegal to drive on public roads and no one was arrested.
Hartridge’s boyfriend had bought her the scooter for her 35th birthday, which she’d
recently celebrated in May.
In what would be her final post, she uploaded a video of herself receiving the gift to YouTube
and named it “10 Reasons to Get a Younger Boyfriend.”
The man has since expressed regret over the purchase.
#6 James Cody Skene In early June of 2021, residents of Venice,
Los Angeles called for a crackdown on electric scooter regulations after the death of 91-year-old
Yin Wu.
He fatally hit his head after a couple, both on a single scooter, crashed into him as he
was walking on the sidewalk, at around 9:20 PM.
The driver of the scooter was identified as 29-year-old James Cody Skene and was arrested
at the scene on suspicion of drunk driving.
The Venice neighborhood had become a popular spot for driving and renting e-scooters but,
according to multiple reports, their presence was a spot of controversy for residents who
viewed them as dangerous and under-regulated.
Skene was held on $100,000 bail for illegally driving on the sidewalk and for carrying a
passenger on the single-person scooter, while his passenger will bear no legal responsibility.
#5 Kayjon Lubin 15-year-old Kayjon Lubin was with his friend,
Azhar Miah, at Pier Parade Square in east London, on December the 11th of 2020, when
they were approached by two 17-year-old males who accused them of stealing their electric
scooter.
The men carried knives and upon being confronted, Lubin and Miah drew their own weapons and
squared up to the pair for several minutes, without engaging.
According to the reports, the confrontation seemed to have been resolved as the two friends
sheathed their knives and walked away from the group.
But as their backs were turned, one of the other teenagers took advantage and attacked
Lubin, who tried to escape, but was stabbed in the chest and head.
He managed to make it to some populated stores where he collapsed, as bystanders rushed to
help him.
He succumbed to his wounds and both 17-year-olds, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were
arrested for violent disorder and murder, charges which both denied.
Miah was also arrested for violent disorder and possession of a blade.
Miah had attempted to dump his and Lubin’s knives while his friend received urgent medical
attention, but police recovered them in a nearby garbage bin.
The location of the missing electric scooter is still unknown.
#4 Jamie Smith Jamie Smith was walking with his father, in
Leicester, England, in August of 2020, when he was struck and knocked to the pavement
by a passing e-scooter.
Traveling at a speed of 24 mph, the collision with the scooter caused what were thought
to be life-threatening injuries, and Smith was airlifted to a hospital in Nottingham.
He survived with multiple cuts, bruises, and a fractured skull caused by the accident,
but was left with severe psychological trauma that lingered long after.
His family admitted that he became petrified of going outside and suffered from constant
nightmares.
On top of taking up to 10 minutes to muster the courage to leave the house, Smith avoided
looking in the mirror, for 6 weeks, because he’d become frightened of his unrecognizable
face.
Despite fleeing the scene after the crash, the scooter driver was found and arrested.
The 17-year-old pleaded guilty to 6 offenses including causing serious injury from dangerous
driving, failure to stop after an accident, and use of a motor vehicle without insurance.
#3 Jacoby Stoneking On September the 3rd of 2018, Jacoby Stoneking,
from Dallas, Texas was using a rented Lime e-scooter when he called his roommate to say
he had hurt his foot falling off and to see if he could order him a Lyft home.
Stoneking was lucid on the phone and insisted he wasn’t hurt anywhere else, but, when
the driver arrived to pick him up, he was found lying on the ground, completely unresponsive.
He was still alive when officers arrived, just after 4 AM, but succumbed to his injuries
the following morning.
He hadn’t been wearing a helmet at the time of the crash and the cause of death was determined
to have been traumatic brain injury.
Stoneking’s father was incredulous that the damage, the accident scene, and the phone
call could be explained by a crash and suspected his son had been the victim of a hit-and-run.
Despite the broken scooter being found 160 yards from Stoneking’s body, police were
unable to find any evidence of another party’s involvement and deemed it a freak accident.
Stoneking’s family was not satisfied with that conclusion and went on to sue the e-scooter
company Lime on the basis of a defective scooter.
Lime denied the allegations, but because of their fine print, a jury would never see the
case.
Instead of court, the lawsuit must be brought to an arbiter, a clause which Stoneking had
accepted under Lime’s 18,000-word user agreement.
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#2 Madam Ong Bee Eng On the night of September, the 21st of 2019,
22-year-old Hung Kee Boon was driving his e-scooter along a cycling path, in Singapore,
on the way to meet a friend.
He owned a massive Dualtron Ultra e-scooter, bought a year before, which weighed nearly
100 pounds and boasted a top speed just shy of 50 miles per hour.
At around 10:30 PM, without slowing, Hung sped through a junction near Bedok Reservoir
Park and collided with 64-year-old Madam Ong Bee Eng, who was cycling perpendicular to
him.
The collision caused Madam Ong to be flung from her bike onto the footpath while Hung
landed on a nearby patch of grass.
Hung sustained non-life-threatening injuries, but Madam Ong was found bleeding from her
head.
Unconscious and unresponsive, she was rushed to the hospital where the extent of her injuries
was uncovered.
The prognosis was grim as, along with severe brain trauma, she’d sustained several facial
injuries, broken ribs, a broken collarbone, and a fracture to the base of her skull.
Doctors noted that they could rush her into potentially life-saving surgery, but that
it would be high risk and she’d likely remain in a vegetative state.
Madam Ong’s family ultimately decided against going through with it and she passed away,
4 days later, in the intensive care unit.
On May the 5th of 2019 Hung pleaded guilty to causing death through a rash act and admitted
to riding a non-compliant personal mobility device on a shared path.
These charges could carry fines and prison sentences up to 5-years and 3 months respectively,
but the final verdict was 12 weeks behind bars.
Hung’s defense was that he had been “mentally preoccupied” over the recent suicide of
his father and that Madam Ong had approached from his blind spot, with no headlights.
The judge threw out Hung’s plea for probation and stated that, although he was sympathetic
to his personal struggles, it wasn’t relevant to his reckless driving.
In addition, his scooter had been unregistered and “grossly non-compliant” to city weight
and speed regulations, of which Hung would’ve been fully aware.
The case was cited 6 months later when the Singaporean government implemented a ban on
e-scooters on footpaths.
Violations could carry up to a 3-month prison sentence and a $1500 fine.
#1 Barrie Howes What is believed to be the second fatality,
in the UK, involving an e-scooter occurred just under a year after the death of YouTube
star Emily Hartridge.
On June the 24th of 2020 charity campaigner Barrie Howes was driving his electric scooter
home from work when he lost control going down a steep hill, on a residential road in
Kent.
Despite wearing a helmet, he suffered traumatic brain injuries and was airlifted to a hospital
after being found by a passerby.
He was admitted to critical care where he spent 9 days fighting for his life before
ultimately passing away.
According to his wife, Howes used to take the bus to and from work every day but had
purchased an electric scooter at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, when the government
advised citizens to avoid public transportation.
Insights into the crash discovered that Howes had eye problems that barred him from driving
and that he was taking medication that would have increased bleeding after an accident.
Kent Police Sergeant Michael Champion called it a freak accident and theorized that, although
his scooter had a max speed of 30mph, the steep incline would have pushed it well past
that causing him to lose control.
Charitable even in death, 3 of Howes’ organs were donated towards life-saving operations.
Thanks for watching!
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