*** Motorized foot scooters a danger to young drivers ***

(Washington State News from all over) -- 06/11/2004
Hear that buzzing sound? Maybe it's cicadas, the big,
creepy bugs making their 17-year, quasi-Biblical attempt
to overwhelm the Northwest United States this summer.

But that's on the other coast. Over here, the ominous whine
tearing up your neighborhood's air likely has another cause:
motorized foot scooters, otherwise known as powerboards.

Kids seem to have have graduated from muscle-powered scooters,
those popular throwbacks to the 1950s, to ones that power themselves
and let the world know it.

Replacing feet with motors means more than just noise; it also
means revving up to as fast as 15 mph, in the case of electric
scooters, and 30 mph or even faster with gasoline-engine power.

The latter also spew pollution and present a danger to folks who
shuffle down the sidewalk with the mistaken idea that they're in
a pedestrian zone.

"Somebody's going to get hurt because (powerboards are)
not regulated in any fashion," Kirkland Police Sgt. Mike Ursino
told The King County Journal. Ursino called it "ridiculous" that
two bills that would have done so died in the state Legislature
this year.

Current state law essentially treats powerboards like bicycles,
state Sen. Jim Horn, R-Mercer Island, told the Seattle
Post-Intelligencer.

"We tried to set it up so anywhere you can ride a bike, you can
ride one of these," he said of the few, loose regulations that do
exist. No licensing, insurance, lights or age restrictions apply.

Local jurisdictions are free to write tougher rules, Horn said.

Which they're doing in droves. In Mount Vernon and Stanwood,
no one younger than 16 can legally drive a powerboard; in Puyallup
the age limit is 14. Kirkland is now considering making its age limit
13. In Wenatchee, scooter pilots must have a valid driver's license,
stay off the sidewalk, use turn signals and headlights at night, and
employ a muffler.

Vancouver is getting ready to crack down, too.

"We are in the process of writing legislation to restrict motorized
scooters," said city prosector Josephine Townsend. "About two
months ago, we started getting a lot of citizen complaints about
children using them."

A traffic safety committee is canvassing other towns to look at
legislation that's already been made law elsewhere, she said. A
draft of the new rules should be finished sometime this month,
she said, with a possible first examination by the Vancouver City
Council in July.

She said the city is considering studying possible age restrictions,
helmet requirements, hours of operation, and banning sidewalk
and park use.

"If people have comments or suggestions, if they've had specific
problems or issues, we certainly welcome hearing about it," she said.
"It's easier to get input now, at the front end, than after the
legislation
has already been passed."

Townsend invites phone calls at 360-696-8251.

Increasing concern and regulations haven't
put a damper on scooter sales and use.

"I like how you don't have to do anything but just stand there and,
like, just let go," 13-year-old Evan Migliorie of West Seattle told the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "It's kind of like driving a real car."

And that's the whole problem, agreed Dr. Fred Rivara,
a pediatrician with Harborview Injury Prevention and
Research Center.

"The issue with these things is that they're treated like toys, when in
fact they are motorized vehicles that can go quite fast," Rivara said.
"If you put a younger child on them, and they're light, they go even
faster. And their bodies are unprotected they don't have to wear
helmets."

CC - Compiled from news wire reports and other sources.

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