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Scooter safety: rising accident rates raise questions over regulation
Journal photo by Lauren Carrol
Tracy Bonafield of Walkertown (right) and her 10-year-old son Eli try out two scooters at Forsyth Motorsports on University Parkway Wednesday, July 23, 2008.
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Published: July 28, 2008
As the price of gasoline soars, more people have been switching to motorcycles, scooters and mopeds, which get far better mileage.
But as the number of mopeds and scooters rises, so will the number of accidents, safety officials said.
The scooter death of a Winston-Salem man Sunday afternoon was the city's seventh vehicle death of 2008, and the second involving a two-wheeled vehicle. Billy Ray Hester Jr., 48, was thrown from his 2008 Chongqing Astronautical scooter after it ran off Jonestown Road. He died in surgery at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
In Winston-Salem the number of wrecks involving two-wheeled vehicles has increased 38 percent —from 73 in the first seven months of 2007 to 101 so far this year.
"It's been my experience this year that there've been more (accidents) involving these scooters than normal," said Sgt. Jeff Stutts, the head of the Winston-Salem Police traffic-enforcement unit.
Most of those wrecks can be blamed on the rider, not the drivers around them, he said.
With scooter retailers reporting sharply higher sales of the small, largely unregulated vehicles, some transportation experts say more regulation may be needed to keep drivers safe.
Carol Gifford, a spokeswoman for AAA in Charlotte, said moped riders should be required to take a safety class certified by the Motorcycle Safety Association. Motorcyclists are required to take the class.
"That's certainly something we would support," she said. "If they're being used as a primary means of transportation, individuals riding scooters need to have the same type of training."
No such legislation has been proposed, she said.
N.C. law does require scooter and moped riders to wear helmets and obey traffic laws, just as it requires of motorcyclists.
Mopeds and scooters may look similar, but the state Department of Motor Vehicles distinguishes between them based on their engine size and maximum speed.
The DMV defines mopeds as having engines smaller than 50 cc and with a top speed of about 30 mph. Riders do not have to have a license to drive them and the vehicles don't have to be registered with the state.
Scooters with larger engines are considered motorcycles, even though they are usually smaller and less powerful than traditional motorcycles and have a design similar to mopeds. Drivers must be licensed and the vehicles must be registered.
John Stokes, state traffic-records coordinator for the N.C. Governor's Highway Safety Program, said he would like to see the state do away with the distinction because riders of both types face similar risks on the road.
Stokes, who taught a motorcycle safety class for 13 years, said he also would like to see a requirement that moped drivers take the same class as motorcyclists , which would teach them important skills such as braking, turning and strategies to deal with other traffic.
"It makes a difference," he said.
Bob Penn teaches a motorcycle safety class at Forsyth Technical Community College. He said that all moped drivers should take the $130 class, but the program would need to be expanded to find room for them.
As it is, there is a three-month backlog to get into the Forsyth Tech class, he said.
Not everyone thinks that more regulation is needed.
State Rep. Cary Allred, R-Alamance, introduced a bill during the last legislative session that would have eliminated the 30 mph speed limit for mopeds and would have loosened the definition of a moped to include those with engines up to 150 cc.
"My objective is to get the mopeds out of the way," Allred said. "I think they ought to be able to do 35 mph in a 35-mph speed zone."
Allred's bill died in committee. He plans to introduce a bill next session that would include the speed limit provision but drop the engine size issue.
"I'll introduce it again. It's going to be a bigger issue next time," he said.
From 2005 to 2007, the number of motorcycle fatalities in North Carolina rose almost 40 percent, from 136 in 2005 to 190 in 2007, according to statistics from the UNC Highway Safety Research Center. It's part of a national trend fueled by baby-boomers embracing motorcycles the way middle-aged people once embraced the sports car, said Eric Rodgman, a senior database analyst at the center.
It's too early to tell what kind of accident trend will follow the increased use of scooters, Rodgman said. The most recent statistics cover 2007, and the boom in scooters has only occurred for the last few months as gas prices have spiked, he said.
There were nine scooter fatalities from 2005 to 2007, and 21 moped deaths during that period.
Mike Allen, a co-owner of Forsyth Motosports on University Parkway, said scooter sales started taking off after gas hit $3.50 per gallon.
"We used to sell 15 to 20 scooters in a year. We now do that in a month," he said. "They're doing it for one reason: cheap transportation."
Allen said he encourages first-time riders or those who haven't ridden in a while to take the safety course offered by community colleges.
"It's like a 16-year-old driving a car for the first time," Allen said. "You've got to practice to get comfortable with it."
Gifford said the safety course system is not perfect. State law allows motorcyclists to get a permit for 18 months, during which time they can bypass the safety course. But there's a loophole in the law that allows drivers to renew the permit indefinitely.
AAA Carolina supports legislation that would close that loophole.
There's no good measure of how many mopeds or scooters are on the road, because moped owners aren't required to register them and scooters larger than 50 cc are lumped in with motorcycle registrations, said Marge Howell, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Motor Vehicles.
As of June 10, there were 208,214 motorcycles registered in North Carolina, including 6,249 in Forsyth County, Howell said.
First Sgt. Glenn Stokes of the N.C. Highway Patrol said that the number of motorcycles has been increasing on the roads for several years, but the rise in scooters is a newer phenomenon.
"I see them just about all over town," said Stokes, who works in the patrol's Winston-Salem office.
It's part of a trend of people trying to find creative ways to bring their gas bills down. He's also seen dirt bike owners trading sport tires for street tires and taking their dirt bikes onto the roads.
Kylie Kavanagh commutes from downtown Winston-Salem to work in Davidson County. But when you get 110 miles per gallon, a 22-mile round-trip commute doesn't hurt your finances much.
Kavanagh bought a moped last year as the price of fuel began to rise, subbing the two-wheeler for the Subaru Outback she used to drive to work.
"I love it," she said about her Honda Metropolitan. "It makes you feel like a little kid."
Kavanagh said most other drivers respect her when she's on the road, but some don't take into account how fast she is going on her moped.
"A lot of people misjudge and turn in front of you," she said.
Kavanagh wears a helmet, and says she feels safe. She also sees some positive tradeoffs in driving a moped because it forces her to pay more attention to the road.
"You can't use a cell phone when you're on a scooter, and you can't send a text message," she said.
Stokes said it may look easy to drive a moped or scooter, but in truth it requires a lot of skills, just like a motorcycle. He said that riders should take time to practice on their vehicles before they get them out on the road.
"Don't go buy one and think 'I can get right out on the road,'" he said. "There's a lot to it."
• Paul Garber can be reached at 727-7327 or at pgarber@wsjournal.com.
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