Two 13-year-old girls died Wednesday afternoon after the electric scooter they were riding collided with a pickup truck at the intersection of Heritage Parkway and Banbury Drive in Syracuse, Utah, just outside Syracuse High School. The crash happened just after 1 p.m., and although emergency personnel provided immediate medical care at the scene, both girls were later pronounced deceased because of the severity of their injuries.
According to KSL NewsRadio, Syracuse police said the two girls had been riding the scooter westbound on Heritage Parkway while the pickup truck was headed south on Banbury Drive when the two collided in the intersection. The truck's driver remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators, police told the outlet.
Truck Pulling Trailer Was Heading South on Banbury Drive
Emergency responders were dispatched around 1:10 p.m. to find a shattered electric scooter left in the roadway, according to ABC4. KUTV reported that the southbound pickup was hauling a trailer as it traveled along Banbury Drive, and noted that the intersection's stop signs apply only to eastbound and westbound traffic on Heritage Parkway — northbound and southbound traffic on Banbury Drive has no stop sign at all.
Syracuse police said they could not immediately say what led up to the crash, and the investigation remained ongoing as of Wednesday, with the Utah Highway Patrol assisting, per the same report. Alex Davis said the deaths mark a tragedy affecting the community, the outlet reported.
New Utah Helmet Law Took Effect Just Months Earlier
The crash comes just months after Utah tightened its rules for young riders. Under House Bill 381, which took effect May 6, all riders under 21 are required to wear a CPSC-standard helmet when operating an electric bicycle or scooter on public roads, according to KSL.com. Per the Utah Highway Safety Office, children under 8 are barred from operating motorized e-scooters on public roads at all, and riders ages 8 to 15 will need direct adult supervision or a Personal Electric Vehicle Safety Certificate once a further provision takes effect in May 2027.
The law arrived amid a sharp rise in pediatric micromobility injuries. Intermountain Health treated 536 e-bike and e-scooter injuries statewide in 2025, and Primary Children's Hospital logged a 66.7% single-year increase in pediatric e-bike and e-scooter trauma cases, with fewer than half of injured riders wearing helmets, according to KPCW. Nationally, children 14 and younger account for roughly 36% of emergency department visits tied to micromobility devices — double their 18% share of the U.S. population — per the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Teen Traffic Deaths Climbed Sharply Statewide Last Year
Statewide, traffic deaths among Utah teenagers jumped nearly 70% in 2025, rising from 18 in 2024 to 31 in 2025, even as total traffic fatalities fell to a six-year low of 264, according to preliminary data from the Utah Department of Transportation and the Department of Public Safety. Five-year crash data covering 2020 through 2024 shows teen drivers make up just 9% of licensed drivers in Utah but are involved in 21% of all traffic crashes and 28% of serious injury crashes, per the Utah Highway Safety Office's problem-identification report.
What Utah Law Says About E-Scooters on the Road
Under Utah Code § 41-6a-1115, a motor-assisted scooter is legally defined as a self-propelled device with an electric motor of up to 2,000 watts, capped at a maximum operating speed of 15 mph on public roads, and is generally subject to the same traffic rights and duties as a bicycle, according to Recording Law. Investigators have not publicly addressed whether helmet use, the truck's speed, or the trailer's visibility played any role in Wednesday's crash, and Syracuse police have not said when the inquiry might conclude.
