Personal Injury Law

San Diego City Council Takes on Pedicab Accidents and Injuries

By Ross Jurewitz

The highly publicized death of a San Diego tourist by a pedicab driver last month has given way to new regulations being put in place on pedicab drivers by the San Diego City Council, who met on Tuesday, July 28, 2009, to re-regulate many of the rules.

The council approved a long list of changes that they find will help to improve safety as well as protect the customers. The Council also was adamant that they were not done with the regulations, and would be making more as they continued to research and find what was best to improve the entire oversight.

New regulations will cap the number of pedicabs allowed to operate in high-traffic zones, and will require drivers to display fares in a prominent location. It will also ban the three-wheeled bikes from sidewalks and streets with speed limits of more than 25 mph, unless they safely use a bicycle lane. They will no longer be allowed to take up metered parking space, and must carry proof of insurance and require their passengers to wear seat belts. All regulations will be taking effect in 30 days.

Many pedicab owners are very upset about the new laws, as it is projected to hurt their business by having to cut their workers by as much as 60 percent. Currently 430 pedicabs are legally registered to operate in San Diego, and 817 people have received operator permits to drive the pedicabs within the past year. You can read more about the San Diego City Council's hearing and proposed new laws to regulate pedicab safety in this SignOnSanDiego.com story.

If you or anyone you know has ever been injured or killed in a San Diego pedicab accident, please contact San Diego personal injury lawyer Ross Jurewitz and the San Diego injury attorneys at the Jurewitz Law Group at (619) 233-5020. You may also contact these San Diego accident lawyers online here.

Full post as published by San Diego Injury Lawyer Blog on July 31, 2009 (boomark / email).