A scooter rider was badly hurt after being hit by a truck in Tempe on Wednesday, suffering injuries severe enough that police say the person's life was in danger. The crash happened in the road near McKinley Street and College Avenue, an intersection tucked northwest of Scottsdale and McKellips roads.
Tempe police told AZ Family that the scooter rider was in the roadway near that intersection when a truck struck them. The rider was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, according to police, who said they are still investigating what led to the crash. Officers did not release any information about the driver involved.
Investigation Still in Early Stages
As of the latest report, no details have emerged about what caused the truck to strike the scooter rider, and no citations or other outcomes of the investigation have been announced. The report also did not specify what kind of scooter the rider was using at the time of the crash.
The crash adds to a running list of safety concerns city officials have been grappling with for months. Tempe formed a special city council subcommittee earlier this year specifically to address safety issues tied to e-bikes and scooters, after what officials described as numerous crashes that often resulted in serious injuries, per the same azfamily.com report from January.
A City Already Watching the Numbers
Between 2021 and 2024, Tempe recorded 388 serious-injury or fatal collisions, and 30% of those involved pedestrians or what the city calls “bicycle units,” a category that includes micromobility devices like scooters and e-bikes. In 66% of those cases, the rider was found to be the primary cause of the violation, the outlet reported.
The subcommittee tasked with tackling these issues meets monthly to weigh possible responses, including a proposal that would give rental e-scooter and bike companies a time limit to retrieve devices left blocking sidewalks, with fines as a potential penalty for noncompliance. According to the City of Tempe, the group's stated goal is to analyze local injury and crash data tied to e-bikes and scooters in order to develop evidence-based recommendations. The city's own crash-data portal notes that 2026 figures remain incomplete, with complete records only available through the end of 2025.
Echoes of a 2024 Campus-Area Crash
Wednesday's collision recalls a 2024 incident near the ASU Tempe campus, though the evidence does not indicate the two crashes shared a cause. In that case, Tempe Fire said a small SUV reportedly ran over five bicyclists near 15th Street and College Avenue, with three people taken to the hospital in serious condition; all three were expected to survive, azfamily.com reported at the time.
In that earlier crash, Tempe police said the driver remained at the scene and was cooperative, and that alcohol did not appear to be a contributing factor, according to azcentral.com. That investigation, like Wednesday's, took time to sort out exactly what led to the collision.
For now, the circumstances behind Wednesday's crash near McKinley Street and College Avenue remain under investigation, and police have not released further details about the driver or the scooter rider's condition.
