They are lucky, it sounds like they had minor injuries.
I have personally witnessed more than one scooter fatality with tourists and countless accidents. Yes, there are accidents with the locals as well, but even a fraction as many and that's a completely differnet issue anyway...mainly, that as a tourist you have options. This is the sole means of transportation for many locals.
While I'm not saying scooters are safe, locals do have less risk than tourists because
1) they are accustomed to riding the scooters
2) the scooters are a means of transportation for them, not a fun vacation toy
3) they are accustomed to the crazy drivers here
4) they are accustomed to the roads here, including but not limited to: pot holes, speed bumps, where the stop signs are, who has the right away, which direction any given street runs as most are one way
I also don't care if you ride mortorcycles at home! Unless you are intimately familiar with Cozumel, the roads, the traffic, etc...you still are a high risk driver on mopeds...which by the way are more dangerous that motorcycles with REAL wheels.
Just last week...I heard a crash outside my office. I walked out and wouldn't you know, two tourists on a moped had run the stop sign at the corner and hit a local who was coming home from the grocery store. His groceries were strung out all over the street and there was obvious damage to his moped. These beligerent "ugly American" tourists were trying to buy their way out of it! They were speaking LOUD English to the poor little local guy and making smart *** remarks to each other about how stupid he was and how his moped was a "piece of sh** anyway". Littel did they know I was listening to every word they said! Nothing makes me angrier than this..when I see tourists treating the locals with such disrespect, especially for something THEY have done wrong. Can you imagine if there had been a car coming when they ran that stop sign and hit them?
What many people fail to think about when they are renting their "vacation toy" is that Cozumel is not a giant them park. This is a real community with real people who live and work and have normal lives to tend to. A tourist getting on a moped could literally ruin a locals life (or another tourists life...not to mention thier own). As I said above, if they had ran that stop sign, and a car had hit them and severely injured or killed them, regardless of who's FAULT the accident was...the driver of that car has to deal with this from a legal and an emotional standoint for most likely the rest of their lives...all because a tourist thought it would be FUN to rent a scooter for the day and explore the "neighborhoods."
OK...rant off...this is a touchy subject with me if you can't tell