Lime Scooters: Injuries seem to subside as a result of two advisory bans

The ban on Lime scooters seems to have worked – the number of injuries has dropped significantly since the company's license was suspended in two cities last week.

MORE: Council Updates on the Prohibition of Lime

More than 1,300 people have been injured with scooters since their introduction in New Zealand in October, totaling $ 643,337 in claims by Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), according to the latest figures.

A breakdown of the figures, published in Herald this afternoon, shows a dramatic decrease in injuries for last week compared to previous weeks.

Although the figures are not broken down by day, Friday's ban seems to have put an end to new incidents: 41 people lodged complaints with the CAC last week for injuries related to the electric scooter, compared to 95 and 111 during the first two weeks of February.

This figure is not as low as 41 since the introduction of the Lime scooters in October, while 33 injury claims were made for the week beginning October 14th.

The week most affected by injuries since Limes was on the street was the week of February 111, when 111 people filed claims for compensation.

However, a spokesperson for ACC stated that the figures do not always reflect the date on which the incident occurred, but rather the time when the complaint was lodged.

On Friday, Lime's licenses were temporarily revoked by the Boards of Auckland and then Dunedin, due to growing safety concerns, following a number of incidents in which the front wheels of the scooters been locked unexpectedly.

The Auckland Council said at the time that Lime had informed 155 people of reporting irregular braking incidents that could have been caused by the unforeseen lock-up problem – including 92 in Auckland and 30 wounded.

This seems to be confirmed by the figures, which show that Auckland users accounted for more than half (716) of VAC claims, followed by Christchurch with 383 claims.

The majority of claims (1210) were related to loss of balance or personal control, followed by collisions or rollovers (30).

Soft tissue injuries were the most common, with 657 complaints, followed by cuts at 428, and fractures or dislocations with 218 claims.

In comparison, there were 1,768 bicycle injury claims in the first two weeks of February and 148 motorcycle injuries in the same period, for a total of almost $ 46,000.

More than $ 8 million in VAC claims have been paid for bike injuries since mid-October, while motorcycle injuries exceeded $ 2.2 million over the same period.

Dunedin Hospital had also seen a decrease in the number of people arriving at the emergency department with injuries related to the electric scooter. However, it seemed to follow a natural decline.

Dr. John Chambers, Clinical Manager of the Dunedin Hospital Emergency Department, said he has treated a number of electric toddler patients with "severe and painful injuries" in recent weeks.

"We did not collect the actual numbers, but anecdotally, at first we saw about five to seven presentations a day directly attributable to lime scooters," he said.

"This number has been reduced in recent weeks to one or two a day, before the scooters are withdrawn over the weekend."

He urged runners to "be careful, stay safe and wear a helmet" if scooters were allowed to return to the streets.

"Helmets are now mandatory in Brisbane for good reason," he said. "It's also important for scooter users to realize that pedestrians may not hear them back at a certain speed."

Auckland and Manukau counties, DHB, said they had not recorded specific data on injuries sustained by Lime scooters.

Since its launch in October, more than 185,000 cyclists have completed nearly one million Lime scooter trips to Auckland. The San Francisco-based company estimated that it had prevented more than 300,000 vehicle trips.

But it was the growing number of injuries that prompted Auckland City Council to ban them from visiting city streets. On Friday, the council took the necessary steps to revoke the Lime operating permit, saying that "security is not negotiable".

Earlier this month, Liam Thompson, 27, of Auckland, fractured his jaw and had several injuries after his Lime scooter found himself stuck in the middle of the bend, throwing him out of the way. on the handlebars.

Last week, Mohsen Ansari was slowing Parnell Rise on a Lime scooter when the front wheel froze and sent him forward, causing him a knee meniscus fracture.

In the meantime, we still do not know when a decision on Lime's future in Auckland will be made. The board has still not received the information requested from the company, after which it will take an additional 24 hours to make a decision.

Auckland City Council said yesterday that it had received thousands of emails since it had suspended Lime's operating license – the majority in favor of keeping them in the United States. streets.

The lime bosses apologized to the kiwi users and said that they were working hard to earn their trust. However, Mitchell Price, Lime's director of government affairs and strategy, assured the riders that the scooters were safe and a series of firmware fixes had already been installed on all his New Zealand-based e-scooters in order to correct the braking problem.