A 16-year-old boy riding an e-scooter was fatally struck by a truck driver in North Center on Monday, the third teenager to be killed in traffic on e-scooters this year.
The teen was riding the scooter northbound in the 4100 block of North Western Avenue around 3:35 p.m. when he lost control and was hit by a semi-truck, Chicago police said in a statement. He was taken to Illinois Masonic Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
Citations were pending, and an investigation was ongoing, police said.
The boy, Alex Blacio, had been riding home from work, according to a GoFundMe for the boy’s family.
Scooter-related crashes have increased alongside rising ridership over the past few years, prompting a safety campaign from the city. The Chicago Fire Department responded to nearly 200 e-scooter-related incidents in 2022. That number had more than tripled by 2025.
E-scooters have grown increasingly popular among students of Lane Tech College Prep, less than a mile south from where the crash occurred.
So far this year, two other teens have been fatally struck by drivers while riding e-scooters: 17-year-old Astrid Alexandra Carrillo Noguera and 15-year-old Violet Harris were both killed in accidents on the South Side nearly a month apart this spring.
Six people on scooters or bikes were hit and killed by cars between January and June of this year, compared to one in the same span last year. The number of traffic deaths — which the city had vowed to eliminate by this year — remains largely where it was 10 years ago after a brief pandemic increase.