A teenager and 9-year-old boy were seriously injured Tuesday morning after being hit by a utility truck while riding an electric scooter in southwest Atlanta.
Police said the two were crossing the street on the e-scooter about 10 a.m. when they were struck at the intersection of Fletcher and Ira Streets in the Pittsburgh neighborhood.
“Upon arrival, officers located an 18-year-old male and a 9-year-old male who were struck by a utility truck,” Atlanta police said in a statement. Both were taken to a hospital with serious injuries.
The driver of the truck remained at the scene and is cooperating with police, authorities said. No charges are expected.
Several metro Atlanta cities cracked down on e-scooters two years ago following a series of fatal crashes. In July 2019, an Alabama woman on a weekend getaway with her husband in Midtown was struck by a hit-and-run driver as the couple rode e-scooters from a comedy club to their hotel nearby. Amber Ford, 34, struck her head and was on life support at Grady Memorial Hospital for nearly a week before her death. The couple’s children were 2 and 9 months old at the time.
Two other scooter riders were killed in the city of Atlanta, and a fourth rider was killed in East Point, all within a span of three months.
There are fewer rentable e-scooters on Atlanta’s streets than there were two years ago, but the devices are still popular forms of transportation, particularly among young people. E-scooters are prohibited on sidewalks and must be used in the right lane of the road or in designated bike lanes, Atlanta police spokesman Officer Anthony Grant said.
Scooter riders must follow traffic laws, yield to pedestrians and are prohibited from using cellphones while operating the devices. It’s also against the city’s ordinance to have more than one rider on a single scooter.
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