In the past few months, scooters have swarmed many American cities with major brands like Bird and Lime getting even into a number of cities in Europe including Paris, Berlin, Madrid and Valencia, Frankfurt, Zurich, Vienna, Paris, Brussels, and Tel Aviv. However, the increasingly growing popularity of these machines has also come with a wave of electric scooter-related injuries.
’Fractures, broken jaws, internal bleeding’’
Although there are no official statistics relating to the injuries, many hospitals and personal injury attorneys in the UK have noticed a recent surge of injuries involving people who have either tripped over or fallen off their scooters. The scooter riders have been flooding into various hospital emergency rooms with their bodies bearing a wide variety of injuries like broken wrists, noses, and shoulders, fractures, and facial lacerations which are normally associated with those victims of car wrecks.
’They are just like any other motorized vehicles’’
With the increase number of injuries, there has emerged a growing number of critics from various doctors, scooter mechanics, former riders, and personal injury lawyers. According to these groups of people, the machines may look like toys but in actual sense, they inflict the same harm as motorized vehicles, but only without having to comply with countries safety regulations. Moreover, some of the electric-scooter fleets are usually poorly maintained making them prone to breakdowns and mechanical failures. The critics have added that these companies have flooded the cities with these electric scooters expecting the riders to learn how to operate them on their own. Lime in particular offers a “How to Lime” video but doesn’t require its users to watch it before riding.
’We remain confident in our devices’’
While responding to this wave of user’s injuries and recent critics, the scooter companies termed safety as a top priority for them. The companies said that their apps and labels which are all found on the scooters contain all the basic safety information and training instructions required. One of the companies, Bird, said it required its scooter riders to confirm they are 18 years and above and upload their driver’s license before riding.
It also said that it had programs that were put in place to give helmets to its users who request for them. Another company, Lime, supposed that it was a requirement for their users to go through an “in-app tutorial” on helmet safety in order for them to unlock their scooters for the first time, to avoid the need for an accident solicitor to be involved.
’We are continuously upgrading and improving our products”
The companies acknowledge that they can’t always be acquainted with all of the mechanical problems in their electric scooters unless their riders flag the problems. They concluded that they are still learning how the devices perform from regular use and in various weather conditions.