Tiffany Nelson, 19, Chris Leichtweiss, 27, seriously injured after their moped is rear-ended by a car on Koval Lane in Las Vegas, Nevada

Two people were hospitalized following an accident at Koval Lane near Harmon Avenue Monday morning. The accident happened shortly after 2 a.m. Police say the victims, 27-year-old Chris Leichtweiss, who was driving, and 19-year-old Tiffany Nelson, who was a passenger, were riding their moped southbound on Koval, when a vehicle rear-ended them. The impact sent the moped forward approximately 300 to 500 feet and caused Leichtweiss and Nelson to become separated from the bike. "The moped got crushed pretty bad. It is smushed up like an accordion, if you go and look at it. It is pretty bad," Metro Police Sgt. Richard Strader said. The victims were taken to University Medical Center with critical injuries. Police arrested the driver of the vehicle, identified as 31-year-old Matthew Thompson, on suspicion of driving under the influence. Frederick Cartwright is owner of Scooter Stop and knows the small vehicles have benefits. "They do 30 to 40 miles an hour. 100 miles a gallon per tank." Cartwright said. Scooters have always been popular in Europe, and now people in southern Nevada are seeing more of them on the road. "You see them all the time now. There's like three or four shops that just opened up in the past year," Cartwright said. Cartwright offers words of warning. "People are used to seeing cars coming at them. When they look down the street, they don't see a moped. They see a blank street," he said. He tells his customers that riding after dark isn't recommended. "If I did, I'd be awful careful. Like I say, I'd wear one of those reflective vests and definitely a helmet," Cartwright said. However, police that doesn't seem to be the case in this crash. "It doesn't appear that they had helmets on, but I don't think that would have really helped very much in a rear-end collision of this magnitude." Sgt. Strader said. Officers closed Koval in both directions between Harmon and Flamingo Road for hours during Metro Police's investigation.