LA County woman calls for more regulations on e-scooters after being hospitalized

Every day is a constant reminder for Nicole Stevens that her life has been turned upside down. 

"I used to sew. I used to embroider as a hobby," she said. "I can't do that because of my arm. I can't. It's hard to cook. It's hard to do even simple things."

Last December, Stevens was hit by a man riding an e-scooter on the sidewalk in West Hollywood. All she remembers is waking up in the hospital a month later after doctors put her in a coma. She had suffered brain swelling and a fractured skull. 

"I thought maybe I had been attacked because I was covered in bruises," Stevens said. 

The man on the scooter took off and still hasn't been located. Stevens' friend said he was going at least 20 mph on Santa Monica Boulevard when he hit her, throwing her backward onto the pavement. 

"My husband tells me when he came to the hospital the doctor stopped him at the door at the ICU and said 'Do you really want to? Because this is going to be really hard and she might not mike it,'" Stevens recalled. 

Nine months later and over $500,000 in medical bills she's still in recovery. However, another e-scooter victim didn't have the same fate. 

Donny Kim was killed just over a week ago in Koreatown when he stepped on the sidewalk and woman on an e-scooter slammed into him. Security camera video shows him falling to the ground and hitting his head on the concrete. He just left a restaurant with his wife. 

"It's the same story," Stevens said. "A hit-and-run with an e-scooter, a head injury and coming close to death or dying."

Stevens says there needs to be more accountability and regulations around e-scooters city and statewide to prevent tragedies like this from happening.

"You can't flood the streets with them," she said. "My brain is forever altered and this woman has lost her husband. What do you say to them?"

E-scooter laws vary by state. Delaware, Pennsylvania and Idaho have banned them from streets. The Los Angeles Police Departmetn are still trying to find the woman who hit Kim.