ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – As a juvenile suffered a severe head injury in an electric motorized scooter crash on Wednesday, lawmakers continue to come up with solutions on safety and regulation.
The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday that the juvenile, who was riding without a helmet, fell off the scooter near Casa Sevilla Avenue in St. Augustine on Wednesday around 4:30 p.m.
The juvenile was taken to the hospital with a severe head injury.
Mitch Cameron was in the area in the incident happened.
“Me and my wife were leaving to go to a family member’s house for dinner, and so had just blocked the block, roped off, and we had to turn around and get out of the neighborhood,” Cameron said.
He said he’s hoping the child is all right and that they’re getting the treatment that they need.
“You don’t want to see anyone hurt, especially a child,” Cameron said.
He said he grew up on regular bikes and didn’t wear helmets.
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This was the second accident this week as county officials work to pass legislation to prevent these incidents from happening.
A teen was airlifted to the hospital on Monday after he was seriously injured in an e-bike crash in St. Johns County.
E-bike safety was an urgent conversation at the last county commission meeting.
“Is there any way to make this a resolution? What I want to do is give parents something that they can say, ‘Hey, you know this is against the law, you know that e-bike rule or resolution,” Krista Joseph, County Commissioner, said.
St. Johns County will bring up e-bikes and scooters again on the July 22 meeting, while there are solutions like these being talked about, Cameron is among the people who think families should address safety.
State Representative Kim Kendall said the latest transportation bill moving through the state legislature is expected to be signed on July 1. It would give counties the authority to adopt an e-bike ordinance.
Kendall said she has had conversations with St. Johns County to let them know.
“I think the most important thing is the county has the control to do what they like,” Kendall said. “So they now have the ability to call for an age limit. They can call for a requirement for a class, they can call for a photo ID. They can implement ordinances. So they now have the empowerment to start laying down some of the groundwork on what we need to have implemented. Kids riding around the neighborhood have no problem with it’s, it’s speed, and that’s the only thing you can really regulate. And that’s, I think that starts at home.”
