To be broadcast Thursday, October 22, 2009

New York, NY - October 21, 2009 - They're a big city tourist attraction, with thousands operating in cities everyday, but how safe are pedicabs? After several high profile accidents in New York City and across the country, many people are questioning their safety.

Julie Perry's life has never been the same since she hopped in a pedicab in Fort Lauderdale. The pedicab, which had no lights or seatbelts, was slammed from behind by a hit and run driver.

Perry: "I was ejected from the vehicle and went head first into the bridge."

Perry suffered from several broken bones and nerve damage to her face. After months of therapy, she's still not back to normal.

Similar accidents are occurring all over the country. Last year, pedicab passengers were killed in Seattle and San Diego.

In Manhattan this past summer, four people were seriously injured in a pedicab accident.

Officals estimate that in the last three years, the number of pedicabs in Manhattan have sky rocketed from 200 to more than a thousand.

INSIDE EDITION went undercover to investigate and found pedicabs in Manhattan maneuvering through heavy traffic under dangerous conditions.

Many of the pedicabs breezed through red lights at busy intersections. Few had seatbelts for the passengers. Some talked on cell phones while driving. And one pedicab driver wasn't paying attention and crashed into another pedicab.

Tensions between pedicab and other drivers can run high. One pedicab driver gets fed up with a cab driver's honking. An angry brawl explodes, punches are thrown, they wrestle each other to the ground, and the pedicab driver even throws a trash can at the cab driver before getting back on his bike and peddling away on the sidewalk.

Beginning November 20^th, regulations will require New York pedicabs to pass inspections. They will have to be equipped with seatbelts, lights and turn signals, and drivers and their pedicabs will need to be licensed and inspected. INSIDE EDITION has learned that, to date, only 51 pedicabs have been brought in for inspection.

Commissioner of the Department of Consumer Affairs Elliot Mintz told INSIDE EDITION: "They will know the rules of the road and if they break those rules, they will be held accountable."

INSIDE EDITION is produced daily at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City and produced and distributed by CBS Television Distribution, a unit of CBS Corp.

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