E-scooter injury claims and near misses spark safety fears

Wednesday, 24 October 2018

E-scooter company Lime launched in New Zealand with hundreds of scooters scattered across Auckland and Christchurch. (Video first published in October 2018)

ACC has had 14 claims relating to e-scooters since Lime launched in two cities just over a week ago, with near misses on footpaths raising fears an e-scooter crash could lead to serious injury.

Californian company Lime put hundreds of scooters on the streets on October 15 as it works towards having 1000 in Auckland and 700 in Christchurch in the next few weeks.

Two more companies plan to add another 3500 scooters in Auckland in the coming months.

Have you been hurt? Or seen any vandalism? Email newstips@stuff.co.nz

They have proved popular so far, but some fear there will soon be a serious accident as the scooters, which have a top speed of nearly 30 kmh, can be ridden on footpaths and roads without a helmet.

**READ MORE:

14 claims relating to e-scooters have been filed to ACC since Lime launched in NZ.

* Lime scooters launch in New Zealand's two largest cities

* Safety concerns raised as electric scooters arrive in New Zealand

Viv Small said she was almost knocked over by an e-scooter last Tuesday while out with her son.

* Lime scooters to hit the streets of Christchurch and Auckland

* Hundreds of shared electric scooters proposed**

Ōrākei resident Viv Small was at St Heliers cycle shop, Hot Cycles, with her son last Tuesday when she said she was almost knocked over by someone on an e-scooter.

Small was concerned it was difficult to see users coming around corners or on footpath blind spots.

'When my son and I came out of a cycle shop on Long Drive - you could not see them at all,' Small said.

E-scooter company Lime has six hundred e-scooters scattered across Auckland.

'All three of us came out and the scooter went whoosh past all of us, it was so fast that we nearly got knocked over and also we could feel wind.'

'We were all very shocked,' Small said.

A man rides an electric scooter down Colombo St with his suitcase.

E-scooters were 'way too fast' and 'very dangerous' for the footpath, she said.

Bicycle mechanic Tom Booth, who was with Small and her son at the time, said the e-scooter was travelling at full speed on the footpath.

Helmets are not compulsory when riding the scooters in NZ.

'If she'd been poking her head out sort of where it was, she would have gotten taken out for sure,' Booth said.

'It wasn't too bad but it had the potential to be worse,' he said.

Although e-scooters do not require helmets, Booth said people should wear helmets when using anything that had wheels.

'Life's too short,' he added.

Overseas, there have been at least two electric scooter deaths due to crashes with cars.

ACC has had nine e-scooter related claims lodged in Auckland and five in Christchurch since Lime launched.

Senior injury prevention Kirsten Malpas said ACC expected most scooter injuries would be sprains and bruises handled by hospital emergency rooms, but more serious injuries such as facial, dental or traumatic brain injuries would need ACC support.

'If people take a knock to the head, it's important that they recognise the symptoms of concussion and let a medical professional make an assessment and diagnosis.'

Malpas said the safety challenge was that most e-scooter users took short unplanned trips, rather than rides they prepared for.

Representatives from Auckland and Christchurch district health boards said hospitals did not collect details whether injuries were from Lime scooters.

Auckland Transport (AT) spokeswoman Joanna Glasswell said AT and Auckland Council had access to usage data for any bike or scooter shared service.

'We also require for any incidents causing injury to be recorded as part of the data we have access to,' Glasswell said.

Christchurch City Council transport operations manager Steffan Thomas said Lime was collecting data on crashes it was made aware of which would be provided to the council before the end of the three month trial period.

In Christchurch, there have also been a handful of vandalism cases – fewer than five, according to Lime launcher Cameron Swanson.

That was good compared to vandalism rates during launches in other cities, and cases often started to 'fizzle out' after a couple of months, he said.

Overall, the launches in both New Zealand cities were 'very successful'.

Lime 'launcher' Cameron Swanson said 3pm was a Lime scooter peak hour and the average trip time was 12 minutes.

'So far the longest rides have been 19.2 kilometres in Christchurch and 25.1km in Auckland.'

On Tuesday, Australian company Wave Scooters announced it had secured a permit from Auckland Council and planned to launch 1000 scooters in Auckland's central and outer suburbs. Five hundred scooters are set to arrive in late 2018.

Onzo, which runs a bicycle sharing programme, also plans to launch up to 2500 e-scooters in the city.

Onzo's chief growth officer, Min-Kyu Jung, said they were expected to arrive in October but there had been a delay in shipment.