WEBVTT

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[ MUSIC ] 

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So in the past six or seven months, we've seen more 

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than a hundred cities in the US get these rentable, 

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dockless, motorized scooters. And we're seeing a lot 

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of accidents rack up in emergency rooms. Over the 

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past few weeks I've been talking to doctors and 

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emergency rooms in several major cities. And they say 

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they're seeing the rate of these accidents happen 

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anywhere from maybe ten a month to ten 

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a day. Well I've heard all sorts of stories. A 

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lot of people. they just lose control of the scooter 

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because they don't quite know what they're doing. 

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Other incidents I've heard is that people's breaks 

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haven't worked. I've also heard incidents where they 

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push on the throttle and the scooter just keeps going. 

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A lot of doctors are saying most of the injuries they see 

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coming in are people without helmets. A lot of people 

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renting the scooters are tourists, they're not traveling 

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with helmets, or people just going about their day to 

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day lives, they're not carrying around the helmet. And 

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this is contributing to a lot of head injuries. [ MUSIC ] 

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That's part 

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of the problem with the scooters. There's different 

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laws in different states, different cities, so people don't 

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really know what the rules are. Some states require 

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helmets, some don't. In California, it used to be the law 

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that everyone had to wear a helmet, but one of the 

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scooter companies, Bird, backed a bill to get that 

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helmet requirement taken out. And so, starting 

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January, people won't have to wear helmets in 

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California. [ MUSIC ] So scooter 

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companies say safety is their top priority, they have 

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stickers on their scooters that say people should wear 

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helmets. Bird, one of the scooter companies, gives 

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people free helmets, they'll send them to them in the 

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mail if they ask for them. So 

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when you sign up to rent one of these scooters, you 

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have to click through agreements in the app, and 

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basically those agreements are taking on full 

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responsibility for what happens with that scooter. So is 

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absolves the scooter companies of any responsibility or 

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liability. So if you get hurt, it's your fault, not the 

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company's. [ MUSIC ] As 

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these accidents wrack up, a lot of people are 

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actually trying to sue the scooter companies because 

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when your brakes go out down a hill there has to be 

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some responsibility taken So this is such a new 

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technology. None of these cases have been heard by a 

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judge or been in any court yet, so it's gonna be really 

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interesting to see how it progresses and how the laws 

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kind of shake out and if those terms of agreement 

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really can have effect. Every single doctor I've spoken 

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to says you should definitely wear a helmet when riding 

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one of these scooters because it can save your life. 

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[ MUSIC ].