San Antonio E-Scooter Accident Lawyers (Bird and Veo Rentals)
Our founder, Joseph R. Echavarria, is a former Bexar County prosecutor who has handled injury claims since 2007 and recovered tens of millions of dollars for injured Texans and their families.
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An e-scooter accident is a crash on a rented or privately owned electric scooter, and it tends to cause head, wrist and facial injuries because a standing rider has no seat belt or crumple zone and a small wheel stops dead in a pothole.
If a careless driver, a failed brake or a broken street left you hurt, you may pursue medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, and lost earning capacity. It is a personal injury claim with an extra hurdle: the rental agreement you tapped through.
Joseph R. Echavarria of JRE Injury Law is a San Antonio e-scooter accident attorney and former Bexar County prosecutor who has represented injured Texans since 2007.
Serving all of San Antonio and the Hill Country and every stretch of Broadway, Houston Street and Commerce Street in between.
Our aggressive San Antonio e-scooter accident attorneys are ready to take your case to trial. A trial-tested team beside you, no matter the size of your claim.
Clients rate us 5.0 stars across 343 Google reviews. When you call, you speak with a personal injury attorney, not a call center, in English or Spanish.
Call our San Antonio office at (210) 272-0101 or use our secure online contact form for a free case review. You Pay Nothing Unless You Win.
What should I do after an e-scooter crash?
Take these steps as soon as you safely can.
- Get medical care immediately, even if you can walk away. Head and wrist injuries often feel minor for a day or two.
- Call 911 so a police report exists, and ask for the report number.
- Photograph the scooter, your injuries, the road surface, and the vehicle ID number, and collect witness names and numbers.
- Do not give a recorded statement before you talk to a lawyer.
- Call us at (210) 272-0101.
How soon should I call a lawyer?
Call within days, not weeks. Ride data, camera footage, and road conditions change quickly, and a claim against a city can carry a deadline as short as 90 days.
Do I need an attorney for an e-scooter accident claim?
You need an attorney because the other side is not one insurance company but several. A motorist’s liability carrier, a rental operator’s risk department, and a manufacturer’s defense team can all appear in one case, and each is built to pay as little as the file allows.
Expect three moves. An adjuster asks for a recorded statement while you are medicated and unsure what hurts. A lowball offer arrives before anyone knows whether you need surgery. Later, an insurer blames something else, or says you rode carelessly.
Attorney Edmundo “Eddie” Leandro III worked years on the insurance-defense side, so we know how the other side builds a file against you.
The governing rules are unusual. State law treats your scooter as a “motor-assisted scooter” under Transportation Code Section 551.352, applying bicycle rules while expressly excluding motor vehicle provisions. San Antonio adds a dockless vehicle ordinance under Chapter 19 of the City Code, barring sidewalk riding downtown.
What does it cost to hire an e-scooter accident attorney?
Nothing up front. We work on contingency, so our fee comes out of a recovery, and you pay nothing unless we win.
Can I recover if the crash was partly my fault?
Yes, unless you were more than half at fault. Texas proportionate responsibility under Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 33.001 bars recovery only when your share of blame passes 50 percent, and otherwise reduces your award by your percentage.
Does the rental agreement I tapped through kill my claim?
Not automatically. The Bird and Veo apps make you accept a liability release, an assumption-of-risk clause, and binding arbitration, but not every pre-injury release holds up. Under Dresser Industries, Inc. v. Page Petroleum, Inc., 853 S.W.2d 505 (Tex. 1993), a release shifting away a company’s own negligence must be specific and conspicuous enough that a reasonable person would notice it. A pedestrian who never opened the app agreed to nothing.
Who is legally responsible for an e-scooter accident?
Responsibility falls on whoever owed you a duty of care and breached it in a way that caused your harm. Negligence has four parts: a duty to act reasonably, a breach of it, a causal link between breach and injury, and damages. A driver who turns across a bike lane without looking breaches a duty, the turn causes the impact, and the broken wrist is the damage.
Several defendants can appear in one e-scooter accident case.
- The motorist who turned, merged, opened a door, or ran a light is liable for ordinary negligence, and a traffic violation can establish negligence per se.
- The rental operator, Bird or Veo, may answer for its own negligence in deploying or maintaining a defective unit, and for its employees under respondeat superior.
- The manufacturer may face a products liability claim when a brake fails, a stem cracks, or a throttle sticks.
- A commercial employer answers for a driver acting in the course of employment.
- A governmental unit may be liable for a dangerous roadway condition, but only within the narrow immunity waiver in the Texas Tort Claims Act.
Can I sue Bird or Veo directly?
Sometimes. A claim against the operator must rest on something the company itself did wrong, such as returning a scooter with known brake problems to service, not merely on its ownership.
What if more than one party is at fault?
You can pursue them all in one case. A jury assigns each defendant a percentage of responsibility under Section 33.003, so identifying every liable party early matters more than any single argument.
How we build an e-scooter accident case
We build these cases for trial from the first week, because insurers settle differently with a firm ready to try one. Mr. Echavarria prosecuted in the Bexar County District Courts, where most of these matters are venued, and he knows how local juries hear them.
Ethan L. Shaw, Of Counsel to JRE Injury Law, is Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law and Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, a credential held by a small fraction of attorneys statewide.
We coordinate treatment with San Antonio providers and handle the liens that follow. Riders with serious trauma often reach University Hospital or Brooke Army Medical Center, and we gather the records, imaging, and physician opinions that establish what an injury will cost over a lifetime. We come to your home or hospital room when you cannot travel, and we work in Spanish when that is easier.
Ready to talk to a San Antonio attorney today? Call (210) 272-0101.
Where e-scooter crashes happen in San Antonio
Rental scooters here are concentrated downtown, so the crashes cluster there too. We take claims from across the urban core and surrounding Bexar County neighborhoods, including:
- The River Walk and Museum Reach, where narrow paths meet heavy foot traffic
- Alamo Plaza, Hemisfair, and La Villita, where visitors ride unfamiliar equipment for the first time
- Houston Street, Commerce Street, and Navarro Street, where riders, buses, and rideshare pickups share lanes
- The St. Mary’s Strip and the Pearl, especially late at night
- Southtown and King William, with uneven pavement and rail seams
- Broadway toward Basse Road, where driveways cut across bike lanes
- The UTSA Downtown Campus and Market Square
How much is an e-scooter injury claim worth?
Claim value depends on how badly you were hurt, how long you treated, how fault divides, and how much insurance exists to reach. We will not quote an average, because averages describe other people’s cases and tell you nothing about yours.
Insurance limits often set the ceiling. Texas requires drivers to carry only 30/60/25 coverage under Transportation Code Section 601.072, or 30,000 dollars per injured person. Commercial vehicles usually carry far more, which is why we identify company vehicles early.
What moves the value of your claim up or down
| Injury profile | What moves value up or down | Typical resolution path |
|---|---|---|
| Soft-tissue strains, road rash, minor sprains | Consistency of treatment; gaps push value down | Pre-suit negotiation, often resolved in months |
| Fractures, dental damage, injuries needing surgery | Surgical records, hardware, permanent restrictions, time off work | Demand package, then suit if the offer ignores the surgery |
| Brain injury, spinal damage, permanent disability | Life-care planning, vocational proof, policy limits | Litigation, expert testimony, often mediated |
| Fatal crash | Statutory beneficiaries, lost income and household services | Wrongful death and survival claims filed together |
Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome; every case depends on its facts.
Texas recognizes these damages:
- Past and future medical expenses
- Lost wages and diminished earning capacity
- Physical pain and mental anguish
- Physical impairment and disfigurement
- Loss of household services and consortium
- Life-care and home-modification costs
- Exemplary damages under Chapter 41 for grossly negligent conduct
When a rider dies, the family’s claims arise under the wrongful death statute at Section 71.002 and the survival statute at Section 71.021.
How does my share of fault reduce what I recover?
It cuts your award by your exact percentage. If a jury finds your damages are 100,000 dollars and assigns you 20 percent of the responsibility, Section 33.012 reduces the recovery to 80,000 dollars.
How long does a settlement take?
Most claims resolve in several months to a year. The biggest factor is treatment: settling before your doctors know whether you need surgery almost always costs you money.
How long do I have to file an e-scooter accident claim?
Two years from the date of the crash, under Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 16.003. A wrongful death claim runs two years from the date of death.
A claim against a governmental unit is far tighter. The Tort Claims Act requires written notice within six months under Section 101.101, and the City of San Antonio’s charter shortens that to 90 days under Charter Section 150, delivered to the City Manager or City Clerk. Injured minors generally have until age 18 before the clock starts, and the discovery rule can delay accrual.
Waiting costs proof. Ride telemetry, camera footage, and the road surface will not stay as they were.
What causes most e-scooter accidents?
Rider falls, not car collisions, cause most e-scooter accidents. When Austin Public Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studied injured rental riders, only about 10 percent of injuries involved a motor vehicle, and roughly a third of injured riders were on a scooter for the first time.
The causes we see repeatedly are:
- Potholes, expansion joints, utility covers, and broken pavement that stop a small wheel dead
- Drivers turning right across a bike lane without checking behind them
- Doors opened into a rider’s path at curbside parking
- Defective brakes, cracked stems, and battery faults on poorly maintained rental units
- Riders forced into traffic because a bike lane is blocked or ends abruptly
- Excessive speed downhill, or poor lighting at night
Are drivers usually to blame?
No, and that surprises people. Most riders are hurt without any car touching them, which makes road-surface evidence and maintenance records far more important here than in an ordinary collision.
Who pays if a road defect caused my fall?
Possibly the governmental unit responsible for that roadway, if the defect was a dangerous condition it knew about and failed to fix. These claims carry damage caps under Section 101.023 and depend on that short notice deadline.
What injuries do e-scooter riders suffer?
E-scooter riders suffer head, wrist, and facial injuries most often, because a rider thrown from a standing platform puts hands and face down first. In the Austin Public Health and CDC study, 48 percent of injured riders had a head injury, 70 percent injured an upper limb, and 41 percent broke a bone.
The injuries we see most often include:
- Concussion and traumatic brain injury from an unhelmeted head striking pavement
- Skull and facial fractures, including orbital and jaw fractures
- Wrist, forearm, and elbow fractures from bracing a fall
- Shoulder separations and torn rotator cuffs
- Dental fractures and knocked-out teeth, often needing years of restorative work
- Tibia, ankle, and foot fractures when a leg catches the deck
- Severe road rash requiring grafting, which frequently scars
- Disc herniation and spinal cord damage
Texas counts physical impairment as a damages element separate from pain, which matters when a wrist never fully rotates again. These patterns track what we see in motorcycle crash claims, and we arrange the imaging that documents them.
Why do symptoms show up days later?
Adrenaline masks injury at the scene, and brain injuries often surface days later as headaches, nausea, light sensitivity, or trouble concentrating. Get examined even if you felt fine that night.
Does not wearing a helmet hurt my claim?
It does not bar it. Texas does not require adult riders to wear helmets on a motor-assisted scooter, and the City of San Antonio encourages but does not mandate them. Insurers still raise it, and we answer with medical proof of how the injury happened.
E-scooter accident cases we handle
We handle every version of the rental scooter claim, from a rider struck downtown to a pedestrian hit on a walkway.
- Riders struck by a turning, merging, or red-light-running driver
- Riders hit by a delivery van, box truck, or other commercial vehicle, where an employer and a larger policy come into play
- Dooring crashes at curbside parking
- Product failures on Bird and Veo units, including brake, stem, and battery defects
- Falls caused by potholes and defective roadway conditions
- Pedestrians struck by a rider on a walkway or crosswalk
- Crashes involving rideshare vehicles stopping or pulling out downtown
- Hit-and-run crashes, plus catastrophic injury and wrongful death claims
What if a company vehicle or delivery driver hit me?
Then the case changes shape and usually improves. An employer answers for a driver acting in the course of employment, commercial policies carry far higher limits, and telematics and dispatch records become evidence. Our firm builds commercial vehicle claims as its primary focus.
What if the driver fled or had no insurance?
Your own auto policy may still cover you. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, which insurers must offer under Texas Insurance Code Section 1952.101, can reach you as a rider much as it would a pedestrian, because a motor-assisted scooter is not a motor vehicle under state law. We read your policy and tell you what is there.
Why do injured riders choose JRE Injury Law?
Riders choose this firm because they get a former prosecutor who tries cases, and a named human being who answers the phone. Insurers push lowball offers, dispute treatment through their own doctors, and delay until deadlines near. We make them pay what an e-scooter accident claim is worth. Our San Antonio personal injury practice is built on direct attorney access, not call centers.
Who will actually handle my case?
Mr. Echavarria handles your case and returns your calls himself, including in the evening. A named case manager keeps you updated from start to finish, which is what clients write about most often.
Do you speak Spanish, and what will this cost?
Yes, our team serves Spanish-speaking clients at every stage. The consultation is free, and you pay nothing unless we win.
Talk to a San Antonio e-scooter accident lawyer today
Get your free case review now. Call JRE Injury Law at (210) 272-0101 or toll-free at (844) 702-0350, or reach us through our contact page. We are here 24/7, and you pay nothing unless we win.
Do not wait. Two years is the outer filing limit, and a claim against the City can require notice within 90 days.
JRE Injury Law, 931 Basse Road, San Antonio, TX 78212.
