Enchanted Way is a bit road in the Pacific Palisades with breathtaking views of the ocean unfold out under.
But ever since their 12-year-old daughter died in an e-bike crash on the block a 12 months and a half in the past, Jonathan and Kaye Steinsapir have averted the majestic street close to their home.
The couple filed swimsuit this week in opposition to Rad Power Bikes, the burgeoning firm whose product Molly Steinsapir was using down the steep hill of Enchanted Way with a buddy on Jan. 31, 2021. Steinsapir’s buddy tried to brake as they sped downhill, however the bike didn’t cease, and as a substitute the women misplaced management and had been thrown to the concrete, the place Molly lay face down, unresponsive, her helmet nonetheless on, in response to the lawsuit.
“I used to walk there. I have not been up there since,” Jonathan Steinsapir, 44, stated. “It’s a really beautiful street with beautiful ocean views. That’s why the girls rode up there that day. I don’t know if I avoided it at first. Now I kind of have because it brings on more and more meaning not having gone there since.”
“I can’t imagine ever going back to Enchanted Way again,” Kaye, 44, added. “I can’t even approach that area.”
Rad Power Bikes declined to touch upon the lawsuit and on questions on the way it makes positive children don’t use its merchandise meant for adults.
“The entire Rad Power Bikes team extends its deepest condolences to the Steinsapir family on the tragic loss of Molly Steinsapir,” Brandie Gonzales, a spokeswoman for Rad Power Bikes, stated in an announcement.
They had been at residence a couple of blocks away when a neighbor known as and instructed them Molly had been in an accident.
Molly Steinsapir, heart, who died in an e-bike crash at age 12, along with her parents, Jonathan and Kaye Steinsapir, and her two youthful brothers, Nathaniel and Eli.
(Steinsapir household)
As they pulled out of their driveway, an ambulance sped previous, and so they adopted it to the scene. The couple stated they bickered as they drove to Enchanted Way, with Jonathan attempting to persuade Kaye that their daughter had most likely simply damaged a bone.
The Steinsapirs, who’ve two boys, Eli and Nathaniel, misplaced their daughter. Molly died in the hospital a couple of weeks later after a number of mind surgical procedures. She by no means regained consciousness. Now Molly lives on in a mural painted in May that adorns the Pierson Playhouse, a theater in the Pacific Palisades the place she acted in performs like “Guys and Dolls” and “Peter Pan.”
Time handed and the Steinsapirs’ fog of mourning hardened. They at the moment are taking intention on the bigger subject of e-bike security for youngsters and particularly on the Seattle-based firm whose e-bike Molly was using.
E-bike and scooter use has surged throughout the nation and in Los Angeles. Rad Power Bikes alone boasts having practically 500,000 riders on their e-bikes, and it’s certainly one of a number of main producers.
As use has skyrocketed, so have accidents throughout the nation. The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission discovered a gentle 70% rise in accidents on e-scooters, e-bikes, and hoverboards from 2017 to 2020. The fee reported 71 fatalities throughout the nation over that interval.
Bike security in normal has turn into a significant subject in cities throughout the nation, with activists demanding governments do extra to guard them from vehicles. Los Angeles responded with extra bike lanes and a few protecting lanes, however critics say it’s not sufficient.
As extra youngsters use e-bikes, some communities have taken discover. Laguna Beach, for instance, launched an schooling program aimed toward younger individuals after officers seen children rushing via city.
E-bike fans argue the machines are protected if used correctly.
But the Steinsapirs really feel not sufficient is being finished to guard youngsters.
“Rad Power Bikes has simply turned a blind eye to the fact that children under 16, under 18 are using their products all over the country,” Jonathan stated. “They acknowledge that’s inappropriate, but they have shown us they’re not willing to do anything about it.”
The swimsuit notes that Rad Power Bikes — the most important e-bike firm in North America, providing sure e-bikes that characteristic an further seat for a passenger — buries the truth that its RadRunner bike shouldn’t be operated by individuals beneath 18 deep in the purchaser’s guide. The warning is listed on web page 49 of 57.
Molly Steinsapir, center, along with her two youthful brothers, Nathaniel and Eli.
(Jonathan Steinsapir)
“Carry your kids,” the Rad Power Bikes web site suggests to parents together with a photograph of a child on the backseat of an e-bike using with an grownup.
While the corporate largely posts photographs of youngsters using in the backseat, an Instagram image from 2020 exhibits a younger boy sitting in the entrance seat of a bike alone. When one commenter recommended in the feedback that the corporate make a “child sized rad,” the corporate responded, “Or a Rad sized child.”
The Rad Power Bikes web site additionally options quite a few opinions from parents who tout the truth that their youngsters, as younger as 10, experience their RadRunner e-bike with out adults.
“It can accommodate my 10 and 12-year-old daughters as they ride up the very steep dirt road to my home,” wrote one man.
That’s precisely the issue, argue the Steinsapirs.
“Part of their appeal is they take you places you wouldn’t normally be able to go, which includes uphill,” stated Olivier Taillieu, the lawyer who filed swimsuit for the Steinsapirs.
Molly and her buddy had ridden all the best way up the steep climb of Enchanted Way and misplaced management of the e-bike as they sped again down.
Minors utilizing electric bikes has been an subject since e-bikes and e-scooters hit the streets. While firms like Lime and Bird require riders to be 18 and add a driver’s license in order to hire an e-scooter, children can circumvent the foundations through the use of a father or mother’s account.
Underage using just isn’t essentially an issue, specialists say.
“Older teens, while technically still minors, may have responsibilities outside the home like after-school jobs or caring for relatives or other responsibilities that require them to move around,” stated Sarah Kaufman, a professor who runs the New York University Rudin Center for Transportation. “E-bikes can be especially helpful for someone going from school to a job and then home.”
Kaufman added, nevertheless, that speedy e-bikes might be very harmful for individuals as younger as Molly and {that a} sticker on the bike noting it’s for grownup use solely may assist maintain children from using.
“You’ve got a dangerous product being operated by children,” Taillieu stated.
![A mural dedicated to Molly Steinsapir](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/79a0d7b/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5387x3591+0+0/resize/2000x1333!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fe1%2Fb1%2Fe014e8354bf0aac44d409185344a%2F1167272-me-molly-steinsapir-mural06.jpg)
A mural devoted to Molly Steinsapir.
(Wesley Lapointe / Los Angeles Times)
The Steinsapirs’ swimsuit additionally alleges doable mechanical points with the RadRunner bike, saying the machine’s “disc brakes” and “quick release” front-wheel mechanism are “a known safety hazard in the industry.”
Trek Bicycle Corp. recalled 1 million bikes over a disc brakes subject in 2015 after three riders had been injured — one paralyzed.
The lawsuit means that the brake configuration on the RadRunner prompted the e-bike to “wobble” and shake when Molly’s buddy pulled on the entrance hand brake.
“I miss my daughter more than anything … They say the loss of a child is like the worst thing that can possibly happen to you and all I can say is that’s true. We go on but it’s very difficult.”
— Jonathan Steinsapir
Karissa Marsh says her 11-year-old son Rhett was unhurt July 7 when the entrance wheel of the RadRunner he was using in Manhattan Beach indifferent from the bike, sending him flipping over the handlebars. He someway landed on his ft, Marsh stated.
“The bike literally just fell apart,” she added.
But the corporate took no accountability for the incident and blamed the Marshes, she stated. Rad Power Bikes didn’t instantly reply to questions on Rhett’s accident.
“Rad needs to take responsibility,” Marsh stated. “Stop blaming everybody else.”
In one other incident in 2019, Coto de Caza resident Jennifer Fitzpatrick crashed after she couldn’t gradual her rented Rad e-bike as she sped down a hill on the Resort at Pelican Hill, she claimed in a lawsuit. Fitzpatrick, now 57, tried to energy the bike down however couldn’t and was thrown from the bike and left concussed and briefly unconscious regardless of carrying a helmet, a lawsuit filed final 12 months in Orange County claims.
“She repeatedly pushed the button, but the [e-bike’s] motor repeatedly failed to shut down, and the [e-bike] continued to pick up speed, making it impossible for her to slow down,” the swimsuit says.
“It was a horrendous crash and just a split second later I thought, ‘Oh, my God, that’s Jennifer,’” stated her husband, Daniel Fitzpatrick, 64. “When I look at these kids riding e-bikes I just envision if right now as I’m looking at them the bike tipped over and they crashed.”
Rad Power Bikes argued in its response to the lawsuit that Jennifer Fitzpatrick “apparently never applied the e-bike’s brakes.”
Daniel Fitzpatrick stated he was undecided if his spouse utilized the brakes.
“Riding a bicycle, electric, motorized or otherwise is clearly a recreational activity with inherent risks of harm that cannot be eliminated from the activity without altering the fundamental nature of the activity. Falling off a bicycle is an inherent risk in riding one,” wrote attorneys for Rad Power Bikes in court docket papers in the Fitzpatrick case.
The Fitzpatricks’ product legal responsibility and negligence case is ready to go earlier than a jury subsequent 12 months.
“Our experience is not isolated,” Kaye Steinsapir stated.
“I miss my daughter more than anything. … They say the loss of a child is like the worst thing that can possibly happen to you and all I can say is that’s true,” Jonathan Steinsapir stated. “We go on, but it’s very difficult.”