A new proposal in the point out legislature would carry penalties for hit-and-run electric powered scooter and electric bicycle riders in line with these struggling with vehicle and truck motorists.

State Sen. Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) said Tuesday her just-released bill would generate “equal penalties whether you are driving a car or truck, or an digital bicycle or scooter.”

“There have been several circumstances of individuals receiving strike by electronic bikes, scooters,” Krueger advised the Write-up — these kinds of as the hit-and-run that killed actress Lisa Banes in June.

“We’re talking about things that really seem like motorcycles or mopeds. They are hefty cars, and they really do not have a license plates… which is why we imagine it is so important that the identical policies that apply to a car or truck in a hit-and-operate use to you if you’re using a person of these electric powered vehicles,” Krueger explained.

“I feel it is nearly frequent sense policy that we must have these automobiles have to adhere to fundamentally the similar principles of the roads.”

Krueger’s bill comes immediately after her Manhattan colleagues Condition Sen. Brad Hoylman and Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal identified as for stricter penalties for e-scooter hit-and-operates subsequent the demise of Banes, whose vehicular assailant remains at-large.

Leaving the scene of a auto crash that final results in bodily personal injury is currently a felony under point out legislation — but performing it on an e-scooter or e-bike is a mere misdemeanor.

State legislators and Gov. Andrew Cuomo legalized e-bikes and e-scooters at the start off of 2020. Riders ought to adhere to 25 mph pace limitations, but Krueger stated Manhattan is inundated with electrical two-wheelers heading much more quickly.

“They’re not supposed to be capable to go above 25 miles an hour, but of class you can soup up anything,” Krueger mentioned. “I’m not anti bike. I’m not anti electric bicycle — as very long as you’re driving them meticulously. I’m not even indicating I’m anti- other electric powered vehicles… but if you’re on a motorbike that is electric, you need to be on the roadway, not on the bicycle path — and you must be adhering to the exact same regulations.”

The potent Senate price range chair experienced outspoken reservations about e-bicycle and e-scooter legalization when they were being handed last January.

She reported lawmakers must adapt to the “evolving” array of automobiles on town streets, and suggested better-pace electrical motorcycles could be expected to have license plates.

“Do I feel an electric powered bicycle desires to be licensed? Based on the research I’ve performed of entities making an attempt to explore that, no, I really do not think we’re at that stage,” she said.

“But if we’re likely to phone one thing [a scooter] that seems just like a motorcycle and has the similar electric power, wright and speed, then possibly.”