The parents of a girl who died in an electric bike accident filed a lawsuit against Seattle’s electric bike company RadPowerBikes on Monday.
In the proceedings, Molly Steinsapir’s parents Kaye and Jonathan Steinsapir, who died last year at the age of 12, alleged that a flaw in the bike’s design made it difficult for the rider to slow down and stop as the bike speeded uphill. doing.
A lawsuit filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court also alleged that Rad Power Bikes was engaged in “inappropriate marketing of e-bikes to children,” and the company said “the dangers of children operating e-bikes.” I didn’t warn enough about it. “
In a statement, a Rad Power Bikes spokesperson said: We are aware of the proceedings filed by our family. Rad Power Bikes has not commented on the pending lawsuit. “
The accident occurred on January 31, 2021, while Molly was riding with a friend in Los Angeles. Late that day Twitter post Her mother, sent from Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, asked for help. Please. Please. Please everyone pray for her daughter Molly. “
For the next 16 days, Steinsapir continued to post on Twitter while Molly, who suffered a traumatic brain injury, remained in the hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit. Steinsapir’s tweets have been shared hundreds of thousands of times, forming an online community around the hashtag #TeamMolly.
Almost a year after the Covid-19 pandemic, when Molly died on February 15, a wave of online discussions about grief and mourning rushed in. 475,000 people in the United States
Molly was a passenger on a Radpower Radrunner bike at the time of the accident. page 49 of page 57 instruction manual For the model, you’ll get a warning that “RadRunner is designed for use by persons over the age of 18.” Rad Power Bikes has a few bikes on their website that they describe as suitable for riders 4’10” and taller. It also includes pictures of children as bicycle riders. The company’s e-bikes can go 20 miles per hour without pedaling.
Rad Power Bikes was founded in 2007 by Mike Radenbaugh, who was a high school student in Humboldt County, California. Now based in Seattle, the company has raised over $300 million in a funding round from investors including Fidelity Management & Research.
Sales of e-bikes in the U.S. have risen sharply in recent years, from 152,000 in 2016 to an estimated 804,000 in 2021, according to the National Bicycle Dealers Association, an industry group. A study A 2020 study published in the peer-reviewed journal Injury Prevention found that e-bike riders were more likely to require hospitalization after an accident than riders using manual bikes. “E-bikes are clearly associated with more serious injuries,” said Dr. Charles DiMaggioProfessor of Surgery, Grossman School of Medicine, New York University, and author of the study.
The Steinsapir family lawsuit also names GiroSportDesign, the maker of the helmet Molly wore. Giro’s parent company, VistaOutdoor, declined to comment.
Even as Stein Sapir After her death, she shared stories and photos of her daughter on social media, but she did not provide details of the accident. The proceedings provide a more complete explanation.
Molly and an 11-year-old friend climbed aboard a RadRunnere-bike that belonged to the friend’s 13-year-old sister, the lawsuit states. According to complaints, her friend was manipulating her bike while Molly was riding on a flat rack over her rear wheel. This is a “sit passenger in tandem” feature.
The two girls rode on the top of a hill that would not have been possible without the electric boost of the bicycle, the proceedings say. According to the complaint, after a friend turned around and went down the hill, the bike “started to speed up and sway rapidly.” Her friend said, “I applied the rear brakes, but the bike didn’t slow down. Then she pulled the front brakes, but her bike didn’t stop and the front wheels started to wobble.” She loses control, and The girl was thrown. The lawsuit alleges that the Rad Runner’s “disc brakes combined with a quick release mechanism for removing the front wheel” are a “known safety issue” in the bicycle industry.
Molly lay unconsciously on the road. Her paramedics took her to the hospital, where she underwent several brain surgeries. She never regained her consciousness, her complaint says.
Molly’s father, a lawyer, Michael jackson, among other entertainment industry clients. After his daughter’s death, Mr. Steinsapir wrote to Mr. Ladenborg, telling him about his daughter, adding that he and his wife, also a lawyer, hoped to avoid lawsuits.
“We want to better understand what happened, why and how we can avoid future tragedies like this,” Steinsapir said in a letter included in the lawsuit. We encourage you to reach out to us and try to have a human conversation, not a lawyer.” The lawsuit says the company’s response to Steinsapir’s letter was “unproductive.” .. The family is seeking damages in an amount determined by a jury.
Molly’s parents said in an interview that they felt obliged to prevent other families from experiencing this type of loss.
“We can’t bring our daughter back for any amount of money,” Steinsapir said. “But we can no longer be silent.”
