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LETITIA STEINPreteens love them, but preteens don't qualify for the driver's license required to ride them.
Pinellas Sheriff's Deputy Tracylee Kramer has pulled over a 9-year-old and a 70-year-old for the same illegal ride - high-powered scooters.
The zippy wheels are the rage in the Tampa Bay area's suburbs. But the fun has limits.
"They're illegal," said Kramer, a community policing officer. After one warning, she slaps joy riders with a $114.50 fine or a mandatory court date.
Breaking the law is hardly the intent of parents who splurge on the motorized scooters, now as common as bicycles in some neighborhoods. They come in a range of children's sizes and are sold everywhere from bike shops to convenience stores.
Under state law, however, these scooters are motor vehicles and require a driver's license to operate on public streets. Preteens can't even qualify.
Florida law also requires motor vehicles to be registered, but the state hasn't found a way to register the scooters, even for licensed drivers. "It's a Catch-22," Kramer said. "They'll get you."
Although the only legal place to ride is on private property, many police officers are letting kids ride through subdivisions anyway. That alarms child safety experts, who are seeing a steady rise in injuries related to these powerful rides.
Motorized scooters are the preteen ride of choice in Brandon's Preston Woods subdivision, where Caroline Hillen's red Schwinn was the envy of the block. Candy-colored models come in a range of sizes geared to preteens and adolescents. Prices range from $100 to more than $700. Some models reach speeds up to 35 mph.
Hillen, 11, earned her seated electric scooter with a maximum speed of 15 mph by saving up allowance and earning good grades. All summer, she revved it down quiet streets, her brown ponytail bouncing. Her brother on a tricycle didn't stand a chance.
"We used to do some races, but mine would always win," Hillen said, whose father required her to ride within the quiet subdivision and wear a helmet.
Her father, Doug Hillen, had no idea that riding the $300 scooter was illegal until an officer recently stopped Caroline. She got a warning. He unplugged the scooter with a lecture about following the laws.
Privately, he questioned the law.
"It just doesn't seem like a big problem," Doug Hillen said. "I see no problem with it whatsoever where kids are able to be in an area that's safe - that's away from heavy traffic - where they could ride their skateboards or ride their scooters."
In Florida, motorized scooters have run into legal black hole. Driving them means risking citations for a number of moving violations.
The law is one thing. Enforcing it is another.
On his community beat in Brandon, Hillsborough sheriff's Deputy Pete Maurer is hesitant to ticket an 8-year-old for breaking laws that aren't widely known.
"They are absolutely illegal," said Maurer, who gives warnings. "Also in the state of Florida, fireworks are illegal. Do we enforce it? No."
His approach is common throughout Hillsborough County, where officers are educating children about the laws, rather than writing tickets. Law enforcers in Pasco County are writing citations, if an initial warning doesn't drive home the message.
In Pinellas, Deputy Kramer accepts no excuses. She has seen what can happen.
Last March, Kramer stopped Geoffery Dryden, now 13, for riding a gas-powered scooter with a seat in the High Point neighborhood. She explained that it was illegal for him to ride on the street or sidewalk.
His family had purchased the black-and-red Cobra scooter for $500 at car dealership in Lutz. No one could recall hearing legal disclaimers.
Within days, Geoffery was back on his scooter. As he pulled to up his family's cream and brown duplex, a tow truck lumbered toward him.
It tried to pass Geoffery, but the right mirror swiped his shoulder. The scooter swerved backward, propelling Geoffery into the truck's path. The truck's tires left tread marks on his left arm. His skull fractured in several places. A shoulder broke.
A motorcycle helmet saved his life. Within months, Geoffery's wounds healed almost to perfection, minus a small mark above his left eye.
Geoffery returned to pitching baseball.His mother now brings a photograph of her son in the hospital to Little League fields, hoping to warn parents about letting children ride scooters without helmets.
"You can give your child a gift not knowing that it can take his life," Lisa Dryden said.
Emergency rooms across the United States treated 5,900 injuries involving motorized scooters in 2002, the lastest data from U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. In the Tampa Bay area, children's safety advocates are seeing are rise in injuries. In 2003, seven children were hospitalized at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg for injuries related to scooters - motorized and non-motorized. This year, the number already stands at 13.
St. Joseph's Children's Hospital in Tampa has admitted two children this year with injuries from motorized scooter accidents. One child died, and another was treated for head wounds.
"We've seen tons of injuries, usually fractured bones, a lot of head injuries," said Bevin Maynard, coordinator of Safe Kids in Tampa, a national group based at St. Joseph's.
Safe Kids says children younger than 12 should not ride motorized scooters. Riders should wear protective gear and stick to paved surfaces away from traffic.
Some states and cities have passed laws requiring helmets, or targeted motorized scooters as noisy nuisances, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In Florida, the law remains murky. In 2002, state lawmakers tried to clear the roads for children younger than 16 to ride scooters by exempting them from sections of the state's laws dealing with motor vehicles. But many issues remained unresolved.
With law enforcement officers now cracking down on through existing laws, merchants have stopped stocking as many scooters at GekGo Scooters stores in Tarpon Springs and Largo.
At the Largo store, owner Peter Spoto said parents who purchase a motorized scooter leave with a full legal disclaimer. And many plan to ignore it.
"A lot of parents are going, "We're going to do this anyway."' he said.
Letitia Stein can be reached at 813 661-2443 or lstein@sptimes.com