A 39-year-old man riding a stand-up electric scooter was killed early Thursday when a Chicago police vehicle crashed into him in Bridgeport, according to police. The collision happened around 12:30 a.m. in the 3200 block of South Princeton Avenue, and both officers inside the patrol car were also taken to a hospital.
Police said the patrol vehicle was traveling northbound at the time of the crash, according to ABC7 Chicago. The Chicago Fire Department transported the scooter rider to Stroger Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. Both officers in the CPD vehicle were also brought to a hospital following the crash.
CPD's Major Accidents Investigation Unit has taken over the case, the station's report notes. No findings, citations, or conclusions about fault have been released as the investigation continues.
A String of Scooter Fatalities Across the City in 2026
The Bridgeport crash adds to a string of scooter-related deaths reported across Chicago this year. In March, a hit-and-run driver fatally struck 15-year-old Violet Harris while she rode an e-scooter in the 2800 block of East 77th Street, according to a fatality tracker from Streetsblog Chicago. The same tracker reported that a Jeep driver struck and killed 17-year-old e-scooter rider Astrid Carrillo Noguera near 3340 South King Drive in April.
Separately, on April 24, a woman riding a scooter died after being struck by a Jeep traveling the same direction in the 3300 block of South King Drive around 4:15 p.m., as reported by Chicago Tribune. The 36-year-old Jeep driver was cited for failure to avoid an accident in that case. Streetsblog's data also showed Western Avenue alone recorded three pedestrian deaths and one e-scooter death this year.
Police Vehicles Have Collided With Scooters Before
Police Vehicles Have Collided With Scooters Before In a separate 2024 case, a squad car swerved to avoid two people riding a scooter, according to Audacy. The two officers in that crash were taken to a hospital in fair condition, while the scooter riders fled the scene, the outlet reported.
Citywide Crash Trends Tell a Mixed Story
Broader traffic data on bike and scooter deaths in Chicago has shown improvement in recent years, even as individual tragedies continue to occur. Chicago recorded four bike and scooter deaths in 2024, six fewer than the ten recorded in 2023, per the Streetsblog Chicago report on CDOT's annual crash data. The number of people killed while riding a bike or scooter also changed from 2023 to 2024.
Still, 2026 has already seen a rise in these deaths compared with the prior year. Through April, ten pedestrians and four bicyclists or motorized scooter users had died in Chicago traffic crashes, compared with no bike or e-scooter deaths reported over the same period in 2025, according to the Chicago Tribune. A CDOT assistant commissioner noted that overall traffic fatalities have fallen roughly 35 percent since 2019 even as the number of cyclists on city streets has surged. Bridgeport has also seen other recent tragedies on its streets; a bicyclist was killed there in June when a car door opened as he rode by, and he clipped it and was thrown in front of a passing truck, according to the same Tribune report.
