A video uploaded to YouTube in July allegedly shows the aftermath of a crash between a motorized scooter and a pedestrian near Metrotown. The driver of the scooter–also known as a cabin scooter–took off from the scene.
On September 11, another scooter hit a pedestrian just four kilometres away from the incident captured in the YouTube video. Ninety-one-year-old Julio Chavez died in hospital the next day.
Burnaby RCMP are now looking into the possibility the same scooter is responsible for both crashes.
“These things can be a weapon. They can be lethal,” said Chavez’s grandson Alex Osorio Jr.
Osorio Jr. points out that there is no training required for people who buy these self-contained motorized vehicles, which can reach speeds of 11 kilometres per hour.
“I think they need to be governed so that they can’t exceed walking speed, which will minimize accidents,” he said.
At Sunquest Mobility, owner Scott Horie provides training to all his customers. He does so by choice as there are no regulations that say he must.
He says there are times he’s turned customers away.
As for possible regulations, ICBC says that’s up to the Ministry of Transportation while the ministry points to Transport Canada.
Two years ago, local governments voted down a plan to lobby for regulations, meaning calls for change appear to be going nowhere fast.
-With files from Jordan Armstrong and Justin McElroy
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