Washington electric-scooter death could be first of its kind in the U.S.

On Friday, September 24, an SUV in Dupont Circle hit 20-year-old Carlos Sanchez-Martin as he rode a rented electric scooter from Lime, a San Francisco-based startup whose vehicles have popped up in cities across the nation in recent months.

According to the Associated Press, the SUV dragged Sanchez-Martin about 20 yards, pinning him beneath the vehicle. He died at a hospital shortly afterward. The SUV’s driver stayed at the scene, and no charges had been filed as of September 25.

The death could be the first of its kind in the United States: Someone killed while riding a rented electric scooter (though Washington officials have classified Sanchez-Martin’s death as a pedestrian crash).

On September 4, a 24-year-old man died in Dallas when he apparently fell from an e-scooter—also rented from Lime. He was reportedly not wearing a helmet. Authorities there ruled the death an accident.

E-scooter use is exploding across the nation’s urban centers, including in the D.C. area, raising safety issues and leaving states and municipalities to scramble to catch up with fresh regulations for the vehicles.

• With D.C. pilot program extended, dockless company Lime goes all in on scooters [Curbed D.C.]
• Electric scooters growing at ‘unprecedented pace,’ finds new transit survey [Curbed]
• Electric scooters’ fate in Massachusetts may hinge on Cambridge effort [Curbed Boston]