NEW YORK — After a collection of fires involving defective e-bike batteries together with a current blaze that claimed 4 lives, New York City officers introduced Sunday that they’re receiving a $25 million emergency grant from the federal authorities to fund scores of charging stations citywide.
Mayor Eric Adams hopes the stations will present a safer approach for supply employees, who depend on e-bikes to effectively do their jobs, to recharge lithium batteries used to energy their bicycles.
“This means that residents will no longer need to charge the e-bikes in their apartments — what we find to be extremely dangerous, particularly when you charge them overnight,” Adams stated at a information convention Sunday. He was flanked by the state’s two U.S. senators who helped safe the funding from the US. Department of Transportation.
The announcement comes after a lithium ion battery caught hearth and engulfed an e-bike store in Manhattan’s Chinatown. The hearth and thick smoke unfold to flats above the store, killing 4 folks and injuring three others, together with a responding firefighter.
In the times since, New York City officers sought the general public’s assist in cracking down on unsafe e-bike outlets and hearth officers issued a minimum of 10 citations to outlets for improper dealing with of the batteries.
City officers stated they’d beforehand fined the store for its e-bike charging practices, although inspectors reportedly didn’t test to see if the shop was promoting reconditioned batteries on a current go to.
Under new tips, hearth officers will probably be directed to reply to complaints about e-bike batteries inside 12 hours, somewhat than the earlier coverage of three days.
New York City has seen over 100 fires and 13 deaths this 12 months linked to e-bikes, greater than double the full variety of fatalities from final 12 months, officers stated.
The metropolis has issued almost 500 summonses associated to e-bikes, which may end up in fines between $1,000 and $5,000.
The batteries can overheat if faulty or improperly charged.
Adams had introduced in March that the town was working to ascertain charging stations. The grant would fund an preliminary 170 charging items in about 50 areas.
New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate Majority Leader, stated throughout the press convention the charging stations present “new hope” to forestall “these fires that start from shoddy China-made lithium ion batteries and chargers.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”