A 23-year-old man riding an e-scooter has been killed in a crash with a car on Long Island, in a collision that shut down roads in the area and left police investigating exactly what happened. The death is the latest reminder of how exposed e-scooter riders can be when they share the road with larger vehicles.
Police identified the man as David Anthony DeJesus, 23, of Roslyn. He was riding an e-scooter at the time of the crash, one of the increasingly common but vulnerable ways people are getting around, which offers little protection to riders in the event of a collision.
The crash happened on Wednesday night in Glen Cove. According to police, DeJesus was traveling westbound on his e-scooter when he collided with a car that was being driven by a 19-year-old, bringing the two very different vehicles together on the roadway.
The consequences of the collision fell entirely on the e-scooter rider. DeJesus was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead from his injuries. The driver of the car, meanwhile, was not hurt in the crash, according to the account provided by police.
The impact was serious enough to disrupt the surrounding area for a time. Old Country Road was closed in both directions between Seabury Road and Ring Road, while Glen Cove Road and Clinton Road were shut northbound and southbound between Flower Road and Voice Road while crews worked.
The timing placed the crash in the evening. It occurred at around 7:22 p.m., a stretch of the day when heavier traffic and fading daylight can combine to raise the risks for smaller, less visible vehicles such as e-scooters that are moving alongside cars.
The death adds to a growing concern about the safety of e-scooters as they become a more common sight on local streets. Authorities were continuing to look into the circumstances of the collision, working to determine how the crash unfolded as the community took in the loss of a young man.