BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (IUSTV News) - Last week, a campus electric scooter company, Lime, and IUPD partnered up to encourage scooter safety among students.
On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of last week, officers and Lime employees handed out over 100 free Lime-branded helmets to students. At the event, students were also welcome to participate in a free scooter ride.
The event comes after several scooter-related accidents and two deaths. The dangers of these vehicles also prompted IUPD to regulate riding times. Now, scooters are banned from 11 pm to 6 am each day. While this was unexpected, IUPD says that they are taking the necessary steps to prioritize student safety.
Hannah Scibba is a Public Information Officer for IUPD. She said, “I do not think that we predicted that they were going to be as dangerous as they are. But that is why we are having these events now. We are seeing the accidents and we just want to make sure that our students are prepared when they step on one.”
On Friday, black helmets were handed out to students in replacement of the white, Lime helmets for safety concerns. While Lime does not classify their vehicles as motorized vehicles, Indiana University does. The original helmets included a warning label reading: “This helmet is not for motor vehicle use.”
The discrepancy called for this last-minute change.
