A 41-year-old man is dead after police say he crashed an e-scooter into a wall inside a pedestrian tunnel in north Phoenix on Friday afternoon. Jeremy Williams was found unresponsive inside the tunnel, which runs under Cactus Road near 25th Avenue just east of Interstate 17, and investigators say he lost control of the scooter while riding through the passage.
According to azfamily.com, first responders were called around 3 p.m. Friday to a report of a person found inside the tunnel. When firefighters arrived, they found Williams dead at the scene. Investigators determined that Williams lost control of the e-scooter while riding through the tunnel and struck a wall, the outlet reported.
Investigation Still Open
The crash remains under investigation, per the same report. No further details on what led Williams to lose control have been released, and the circumstances surrounding the moments before the crash have not been made public.
The tragedy adds to a wave of concern among Valley emergency room doctors about the rising toll of e-scooter and e-bike crashes. Physicians at Valleywise have said injuries tied to the devices have been climbing for years, with one doctor noting, “It’s been growing higher and higher over the last decade,” according to dailydispatch.com.
A Pattern of Serious Injuries
Those same Valleywise physicians said the most common injuries they see from e-bike and scooter crashes include long-bone fractures, vertebral fractures, skull fractures, traumatic brain injuries and severe road rash, the outlet reported. Separately, a Truveta study cited by the same report found that emergency-room visits tied to e-bike and e-scooter injuries among children rose 7.5-fold nationwide between 2023 and May of this year.
Federal data adds further context to the risks tied to these devices. The Consumer Product Safety Commission said it is aware of 233 deaths associated with micromobility devices from 2017 through 2022, though the agency cautioned that reporting is ongoing and incomplete, according to a release posted on cpsc.gov. The same release noted that hoverboard injuries bucked the broader trend, falling 26 percent from 2021 to 2022.
Other Recent E-Scooter Fatalities
Williams’ death follows fatal e-scooter and e-bike incidents reported around the country, including recent reports of deaths in Bend, Oregon, and Bordentown, New Jersey, and an earlier report about a death in Huntington Beach, California. A Bend, Oregon, man died after crashing an electric scooter in a closed construction zone, with one report from KTVZ identifying him as 40 years old, while a separate account from KATU said authorities reported he had entered the zone without a helmet.
Elsewhere, a Bordentown Regional Middle School student in New Jersey died two days after being struck by a car while riding an e-scooter, officials said, according to CBS Philadelphia. In Huntington Beach, California, a woman riding an e-bike died after crashing into a street curb, marking the second such death in that coastal city in recent months, per the Los Angeles Times.
No further information about Williams has been released, and police have not said whether any additional findings have emerged since Friday. The investigation into his death remains open.
