Last week, 5-year-old Erica Williams became the youngest victim of an e-bike fire in Gotham's latest catastrophe. .A fast-burning battery has killed five New Yorkers this year, including her three last week. If Mayor Eric Adams doesn't take action, we will face mass casualty incidents. While sleeping at the Jackie Robinson House, which is owned by the City Housing Authority, Eric's e-bike catches fire. Erica and Chakaina are dead. Eric was burned.
That same week, Venezuelan asylum seeker Rafael Elias Lopez Centeno died after his electric bicycle caught fire in his Bronx apartment.
This has left five of him dead and 66 injured in electric bike fires this year. Overall in 2021, four of his people, including his 9-year-old boy, were killed and 79 injured in New York.
Before 2021, the year after Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio legalized e-bikes, no one had died in an e-bike fire.
E-bike batteries can be used to (illegally modified and speeding) vehicles traveling at 25 mph. stores enough energy to power the A reliable bike with a Underwriters-Lab tested battery is expensive and requires professional battery maintenance. Thousands of electric delivery bikers in the city like Lopez Centeno don't buy certified batteries.
Delivery men and other poor New Yorkers are buying "improperly manufactured, unauthenticated and potentially counterfeit batteries" at discounted prices. Brooklyn-based My Battery Recyclers. This is "something that didn't exist 10 years ago."
Exposure to rain and salt, poor maintenance, and poor charging practices exacerbate the problem. "You can't put a charger that's powering AC [into an outlet]," he says Kesler.
This is his NYCHA building problem is. Don't pay for metered electricity. An industry was born to charge and cash delivery bikes. "You can't have someone in your apartment who charges 20 batteries," he says.
In December, a man died while charging batteries at a Manhattan public housing complex. Two children escaped the outer pipe.
It would be "useless" for ordinary citizens to try to put out the lithium-ion fire, Kessler added. And people are throwing used batteries in the trash, demanding FDNY compliance.
In 20 months he has nine deaths bad, but what if someone charges multiple bikes near a public exit?
Mass amateur billing should be banned. The same applies to DIY repaired batteries that are not UL certified. But how to force it.
"Startup" apps like DoorDash and Uber Eats are the biggest players in the food delivery business, which didn't exist in its current form five years ago. They outsource all risks to cyclists and do not even hire cyclists directly. "Independent Contractor" deliverers must procure and store hazardous equipment essential to their work themselves and in their apartments.
These "independent contractors ” are often desperate recent border crossers. Not the best party to take responsibility for procuring, storing, charging, maintaining and disposing of toxic, hazardous and flammable equipment.
This is the telecommuting version of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. FDNY does not allow the use of e-bikes at headquarters.
Apps are exploiting "contractors" to NYCHA's e-bike ban,," the city reports.
No: A "brutal" schedule wasn't possible until the city legalized e-bikes .
Workers who want to ride pedal bikes can't keep up. "It was. From $2 he can make $3 by breaking the law and endangering our safety," App e-cyclist Manny Ramirez told City.
(E-deliverers also died in large numbers in roadway crashesand no work injurieshere President Joe Biden's Office of Occupational Safety and Health.)
Adams should ban this dangerous outsourcing by apps (and restaurants that hire cyclists).
Carriers must be responsible for purchasing, registering, maintaining, storing, charging, and disposing of hazardous and toxic equipment at FDNY approved locations (grocery app does). Workers can pick up and drop off their bikes for their shift. The
app suggests that the city provide charging stations instead. Um, no — this isyourmulti-billion dollar mess. You fix it.
Also, stop pretending the shipping industry is a "green" option. Before the advent of e-bikes, delivery people didn't drive. They were riding pedal bikes.
If you notice more streamers than ever before, you're right. This is another "tech" industry that is ready to shrink anyway. Like "old" Uber, it is heavily subsidized by investorsand not consistently profitable
Literally no need to burn dozens more in front of investors burn their money.
Nicole Gelinas is a contributing editor for the Manhattan Institute's City Journal.
