Man dies in e-scooter crash near UT campus amid Austin safety crackdown

A man died early Thursday after a presumed electric scooter crash near the University of Texas campus.

Austin police officers and EMS responded to a welfare check call at 1:45 a.m. near West 23rd Street and Guadalupe Street, authorities said. They arrived to find a man lying on the sidewalk alongside an electric scooter. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police have determined the death to be an accident.

E-scooter deaths are relatively rare, according to a city audit published last August that found Austin has averaged one scooter-related fatality a year since 2018.

But the audit also found that unreliable data and poor coordination among city departments and stakeholders was hampering enforcement of e-scooter regulations — and that the lack of a standard definition for “collision” or “crash” makes it hard to collect accurate data. The audit noted that two scooter providers reported zero crashes in 2022 and 2023, while another provider reported 342 crashes.

Following the audit, the city's Department of Transportation and Public Works reduced the number of public e-scooters to 6,700 from 8,700. In May, it posted new guidelines requiring an inspection process for scooters and for the devices to have safety features including brakes, headlights and taillights.