Electric and gas-powered scooters are big businesses. So are the companies that rent them. Even Ford Motor Company has gotten in on the action, purchasing an electric scooter startup, Spin. While companies like Segway and Razor make the scooters, among others. Typically, when people think of a DUI charge, they see a person getting behind the wheel of a car or a truck intoxicated. A growing number of scooter riders are being charged with DUI in California and in other states.
The Spokesman-Review reports on a Texas man facing DUI charges after crashing a gas-powered scooter.
30-year-old Travis Walker is no stranger to a DUI charge. However, this is his first DUI charge while operating a gas-powered scooter.
Police charged Walker with DUI after he crashed his gas-powered Viza Viper outside a restaurant in Austin on Halloween night.
Walker was going to try and get away when restaurant staff contacted the police after he refused a taxi called by restaurant. As he was leaving, he nearly crashed the scooter into the taxi.
Police performed field sobriety tests on Walker, who told police he thought it was after 3 a.m. when it was just after 8 p.m.
This isn’t the first time someone has been arrested for DUI while on a scooter. Earlier this year, a man was arrested trying to get through a DUI checkpoint in California. He was riding on an electric scooter at the time.
There has also been a conviction of driving under the influence while on an electric scooter. In September, Nicholas Kauffman became the first person to be convicted of DUI while on a scooter. He received a $550 dollar fine and probation.
