Worst e-scooter crash since rentals arrived in Boise last fall leaves trail of questions

The alley behind the Union Block building on Idaho Street — a two-story brick-and-sandstone structure that dates back to 1902 — is surprisingly lively.

People walk, drive, bike, skateboard and ride scooters through the alley, a corridor that connects pedestrian-friendly 8th Street and busy Capitol Boulevard. Cars also filter in and out of parking garages, and employees of nearby restaurants relax and smoke cigarettes there during breaks. The alley got a makeover a couple years ago to make it more user-friendly.

Basement renovation work on the Union Block building is now also affecting the alley — perhaps more than anyone realized before two women on a scooter crashed into a 12-foot construction hole just before 7 p.m. Friday, July 26.

One of the women was able to get out of the pit herself, while first responders used a ladder to help the other one out, a Boise Fire Department spokeswoman said. Both were transported to a local hospital for treatment of injuries.

Photos of the scene immediately after the crash showed bright orange barricades around hole, leaving many on social media with questions, including: How did they end up in the hole? Was there negligence on the part of the scooter driver, the contractor responsible for safety at the construction site, or both?

Or was it just a freak crash that couldn’t have been prevented?

No Boise Police investigation

Boise police officers who responded to the scene believed the scooter crash was an accident — and the women’s injuries didn’t appear life-threatening — so they didn’t file a report on the crash, department spokeswoman Haley Williams told the Statesman. She said the focus was on getting the women medical care.

“The barriers that had been knocked over were replaced,” Williams said.

The morning after the crash, Boise Fire Department spokeswoman Char Jackson told the Statesman that the women on the scooter were for some reason unable to maneuver around the orange barricades next to the hole.

The barriers were not “fastened down” at the time of the crash, Jackson said. She said the department is not investigating.

The Statesman tried to obtain the transcript of the 911 call or calls about the crash — to glean more about what happened from a witness or someone who came on the scene immediately after — but an Ada County Sheriff’s Office spokesman said he could not release the audio or a transcript from emergency dispatch without permission from the person who called in. The identity of the person who called 911 is not known to the Statesman, so that record could not be obtained.

It’s unknown how fast the scooter was traveling when it struck the construction barriers, but the maximum speed of the 750 rental scooters on city streets is 15 mph.

If the two women were riding on the same scooter — firefighters saw just one at the scene, Jackson said — that would be a violation of city code.

“No e-scooter shall be used to carry more than one person at one time,” city code section 6-13-4 says, although it’s a code that is regularly ignored by scooter riders.

It’s a civil infraction, and any police officer or code compliance officer who witnesses that can cite riders. But that hasn’t really happened, as the city is still learning how to regulate e-scooter rentals, said Craig Croner, administrative services manager for the city of Boise.

The first e-scooter rentals hit the streets last October, and the issue of more than one rider on scooters was identified as a problem early on, KTVB reported in November.

Since last fall, Boise police have issued two citations for reckless operation of a scooter, Williams said. That is defined as driving it “inattentively, or carelessly or heedlessly” or “without due caution and circumspection, or at such speed or in any manner as to endanger or be likely to endanger any person or property,” according to city code section 6-13-18.

It’s a misdemeanor that carriers penalties of up to six months in jail and/or up to $1,000 fine.

In one of these cases, the scooter driver ran into a pedestrian. In the other, the scooter driver disobeyed a walk sign at Front and 11th streets and entered the road in front of traffic that had a green light, Williams said. A vehicle hit the scooter, but the person on it was not seriously injured.

To improve safety, the Boise City Council last week approved three new scooter ordinances, including one that would limit speeds to under 5 mph in congested areas and public plazas. That will be done through “geofencing,” which involves the use of GPS software to cap scooters’ maximum speeds in specified locations.

The city is also going to have numbers placed on the scooters so the public can more easily report someone who is driving recklessly. They track complaints.

Who monitors construction site safety?

Ken Howell, owner of the Union Block, is renovating the 15,000-square-foot basement of the building so that it can be used for more than storage.

He’s excavating to increase the ceiling height from 7 feet to 10 feet, and adding window wells to both sides of the building to bring in natural light. The window wells will be continuous from one end of the building to the other in the front and back.

“We’ll be replacing some of the sidewalk bricks with glass,” he said. “It should be interesting.”

Howell said excavation began a month ago, starting at the east end of the building under Moon’s Kitchen Cafe. Other tenants of that building are Old Chicago, Mai Thai and Balsam Brands.

The women on the scooter plowed into the orange barriers around a hole under Moon’s Kitchen Cafe. The 4-foot high plastic jersey barriers, which can be filled with water to better keep them in place, apparently did not have water in them.

“It is our understanding that the devices were defective and unable to hold water,” Natalie Shaver, a spokeswoman for the Ada County Highway District, said via email.

The crash happened Friday night. By Monday, there was 6-foot metal fencing around the hole, and it was secured in a way that would make it difficult to accidentally knock over.

“In this case, obviously, we wish it had been improved (before the crash),” Howell said. “We got some suggestions on how to do that, and we’ve done that.”

So did Howell’s contractor, Redco Construction, have the proper permits for the construction work — and did they follow required safety measures?

The building project extends several feet out from the building, into the public right-of-way. The city of Boise does not oversee construction that’s in the public right-of-way, even if it’s part of a building, said city spokesman Mike Journee.

The Ada County Highway District has authority over the public right-of-way.

Howell’s contractor obtained a permit to dig a 2.5-foot trench for a “light well,” according to Shaver. When an inspector became aware of additional excavation last week, they advised the contractor to update their permit, she said.

Contractors, or whoever applies for the permit, must come up with a plan for traffic control devices and set them up. ACHD reviews and approves those plans as part of the permitting process. The permit for the project requires the alley to be shut down to through traffic when construction work is being done; the barricades are erected as a safety measure after they leave.

Shaver said an ACHD inspector was at the site last Friday, prior to the scooter crash. He found everything to be in compliance.

“If the police contact ACHD on a situation, ACHD will respond with temporary measures for safety until permittee can supply their own,” Shaver wrote. “Our responsibility ends with the temporary traffic control plan that was approved. It is the contractor’s responsibility to keep the construction zone safe.”

Howell conceded that “anytime you open up a hole, and you’re adjacent to a walkway, you need to protect it.”

“But you can’t anticipate everything,” he said.

This story was originally published August 2, 2019 at 11:52 AM.