Revel Shuts Down their NYC Moped Rental Service after Two Recent Deaths

Moped Rental Company, Revel shut down its New York City Service today after having two recent moped riding deaths occurred over the past two weeks.

CBS News Reporter Nina Kapur was killed on July 18, in the borough of Brooklyn, while riding as a passenger and falling off one of their scooter rentals. Last night, a man named Jeremy Malave lost his life due to riding on the streets of Queens.

Their online site (at gorevel.com) had the following notice at the top of its page:

“”Starting on Tuesday, July 28th, we’re shutting our NYC service down until further notice while we review and strengthen our rider accountability and safety measures. We look forward to serving our New York riders again in the near future.””

There’ve been reports in past weeks of repeated accidents involving the company’s rentals on the streets of the Big Apple.

This morning during his press briefing, Mayor Bill de Blasio had the following to say:

“We have seen too many times in the last few days painful realities, people injured, and even worse, lives lost, by folks who were just trying to have an enjoyable experience and rented a Revel scooter. Our hearts go out to the family of a young man who died in Queens last night. We’ve had two fatalities in less than a week. This is an unacceptable state of affairs. So, the City has the power to regulate, to restrict, and even prohibit Revel scooters,” said the Mayor.

“We spoke to the company this morning, to the CEO of revel made very clear that it’s an satisfactory and unacceptable situation. Revel has made the decision to shut down their service for the time being. And that is the right thing to do, because no one should be running a business that is not safe. And, unfortunately, this has been proven to be not safe. We will work with Revel. We will not allow them to reopen unless we are convinced it can be done safely. I just want people to know that that service will now be shut down as of today.”