A girl riding a scooter was seriously injured Sunday night after a suspected drunk driver slammed into her and three other cars near Cecil Street on N.C. 55 in Durham. Four other people were also hurt in the crash, though their injuries were described as minor.
The girl driving the scooter was taken to the hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, according to WRAL. The outlet reports that Durham police suspect the driver was impaired by alcohol at the time of the crash, and that charges against the driver are pending.
Four additional people involved in the wreck were taken to the hospital with minor injuries, per the same report. The crash happened Sunday night, snarling what should have been a quiet stretch of N.C. 55 with multiple damaged vehicles and a hospitalized scooter rider.
A Familiar Pattern on North Carolina Roads
Scooter crashes have become an increasingly visible problem across the state in recent years. More than 300 scooter crashes have occurred throughout North Carolina since 2018, with most concentrated in Charlotte, Raleigh and Durham, according to an ABC11 investigation. The same report found that North Carolina logged 74 scooter crashes reported to NCDOT in a single year, a 40% jump from 2019.
The injuries from those crashes have landed heavily on local hospitals. WakeMed has treated around 600 patients for scooter-related injuries since 2021, the station's report notes, with the hospital often seeing one to two scooter-injury patients a day during the summer months. Nationally, emergency-room visits tied to scooter injuries tripled between 2017 and 2020, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission tied 71 deaths in that same span to e-scooters, hoverboards and e-bikes, per the same account.
Charges Still Pending
It remains unclear what specific evidence Durham police are relying on to suspect impairment, and the department has not said when or whether formal charges will be filed against the driver. North Carolina law addresses impaired driving under G.S. 20-138.1, a statute maintained by the North Carolina General Assembly that makes it a crime to drive while impaired.
This is not the only recent crash to draw scrutiny on Durham roadways. In September, The News & Observer detailed two separate Durham crashes, including one in which a driver was charged with impaired driving and driving while his license was revoked, according to The News & Observer. CBS 17 also reported that a woman died after being struck by multiple vehicles on I-40 in Durham, police said at the time, according to CBS 17.
For now, the extent of the scooter rider's recovery and the fate of any charges against the suspected driver remain open questions in Durham, where police have said only that the investigation into Sunday night's crash is continuing.
