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Throughout the summer, they poured into emergency rooms across the country. Their bodies wore a mixture of wounds that doctors normally associated with victims of wrecks: broken nose, wrists and shoulders, lacerations and fractures of the face. trauma that can leave the brain damaged permanently.
When doctors began asking patients to explain their injuries, many were surprised to learn that the rise of parts of the body was the result of the latest trend in urban transportation: shared electric scooters.
In Santa Monica, California, where one of the largest groups of electric scooters is based, the city's fire department responded to 34 serious accidents involving gear this summer. The director of the emergency department said his team had treated 18 seriously injured patients in electric scooter accidents during the last two weeks of July. And in San Francisco, the doctor who runs the emergency room of a large hospital said that he saw up to 10 seriously injured a week.
"The injuries are fast and furious," said Michael Sise, chief medical officer at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego, noting that his team was injured four times last week. "It's only a matter of time before someone is killed." I am absolutely certain of it.
The Washington Post has interviewed emergency room doctors in seven cities, including Austin, Atlanta and Nashville, where doctors report a spike in serious accidents after launching devices on their streets. There is still no national data on scooter injuries.
As injuries multiply in cities across the country, the three largest scooter companies – operating under the names of Bird, Lime and Skip – have seen their values skyrocket as they attempt to transform urban transportation. sharing companies. Scooter start-ups have attracted massive investments from Uber, the venture capital company Sequoia Capital and Alphabet, the parent company of Google. Some analysts believe that some of the private companies could represent more than a billion dollars.
John Montgomery, 47, says he was driving a bird scooter in July when he was working badly, throwing him into the street first and making him pass out. (Courtesy of John Montgomery)
But an increasing number of critics – including doctors, former riders, scooter mechanics and injury lawyers – say the devices can look like toys but do as much damage as any other motorized vehicle on the road. regulations. These criticisms add that some fleets of electric scooters are poorly maintained by a group of amateur mechanics, which makes them vulnerable to dangerous mechanical failures.
Responding to The Post's questions about the injury wave, scooter companies said safety was a top priority. Bird, Lime and Skip say that their apps and labels on scooters contain basic safety information as well as training instructions. Bird asks users to download a driver's license and confirm that they are at least 18 years old.
Bird and Skip have programs that give helmets to runners who request them, and Lime notes that riders must follow an "in-app" tutorial on helmet safety to unlock one of the company's scooters for the first time .
"We are also striving to reduce the injuries associated with the design of our vehicles and incorporate key safety features such as headlights and taillights, independent suspensions and a wider footrest to enhance stability," he said. Skip.
But Bird is also lobbying against California legislation that would require users to wear a helmet.
Once injured, many riders may discover from vehicle use contracts that they can not sue because of clauses requiring that disputes be resolved through arbitration.
In addition, firms recognize that they can not always be aware of serious mechanical problems in their vehicles unless pilots report problems. Scooter companies continue to learn how their vehicles operate under a variety of weather conditions and regular use, according to a senior official from one of the three companies who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak freely about their cars. challenges of the industry.
Philip Rosescu, a senior forensic engineer at Wexco, a company specializing in accident reconstruction, said that this type of "reactive system" often required a complaint or incident before repairs were made.
"Enterprise Rent-A-Car will not depend on tenants and drivers to signal that the brake fluid needs to be filled or when the wipers need to be changed," he said. "Being reactive in the transport sector is very dangerous."
Some former mechanics and riders say that a major problem is that companies do a bad job of maintaining scooters.
Messages on Craigslist contain dozens of ads for scooter mechanics. Although some job offers require previous electronic repair experience, others, such as those published by Bird, claim that applicants need only one vehicle and one. a smartphone to qualify for a job. Those who are hired are trained in watching YouTube videos, say current and former employees of the company.
In a statement responding to questions about his training methods, Bird said the company was using "a number of tools and mechanisms" to train its network of scooter loaders and mechanics.
"As we develop best practices, we are looking to deploy them as well and continually train our loaders and mechanics," the company said. He added that his vehicles are inspected once collected by shippers and mechanics each night. If inspections reveal that repairs need to be done, "experienced mechanics" do the necessary repairs, the company said.
But Fahin Kamrany, a former Bird Mechanic in Santa Monica who plans to sue the company, says mechanics are under pressure to repair at least three scooters a night or risk being fired, even when spare parts from China are rare. The text messages between Kamrany and a Bird Supervisor that she provided to The Post seem to indicate delays and difficulties in ordering and acquiring spare parts for broken scooters.
The 57-year-old woman said she was performing a diagnostic test when she fell from a scooter with defective brakes, suffering a serious head injury, a broken collarbone and 15 medical expenses. $ 000.
"I met a lot of scooters who had bad brakes or a sticky throttle," she said in an interview. "If you pressed the accelerator, it would stay stuck in that position and you could not stop the scooter from rolling at full speed."
When asked about Kamrany's remarks, Bird spokesman Kenneth Baer said the company "does not comment on specific allegations or allegations".
For his part, Lime says he has local teams responsible for inspecting and maintaining the scooters. The company recently added a feature allowing shippers to remove scooters from the street.
Skip stated that his scooters undergo "regular safety checks" and are "put out of service for repair" or if riders report performance problems. The company said it relied on staff, contract mechanics and independent repair shops to maintain its fleet.
Wally Ghurabi, director of the Nethercutt Emergency Center at UCLA Medical Center, said that most of the injuries he's dealing with are not teenagers, but adults of all ages, including a man who is approaching 70 years old.
He blames scooters – left anywhere in the city to be rented by a smartphone – to give customers a false sense of security.
"When I see scooters, they smile and have fun," said Ghurabi, whose team cared for the 18 seriously injured patients in scooter accidents during the last two weeks of July. "But if you lose control and you're thrown in the air at 15 miles an hour and land on your head in the street, that's enough strength to kill you – and almost no one on those scooters is wearing a helmet."
Indeed, even if Bird urges users to wear a helmet to ride with his scooters, the company also supports a California bill that would exempt runners from wearing one.
Bird explained his position by noting that California does not require helmets for adults who ride electric bikes, who travel at speeds similar to those of electric scooters.
"Our goal in supporting this legislation continues to provide shared scooter and e-bike users with more consistent access rules so that people can more easily adopt sustainable shared mobility options," the company said. . "We are delighted that the California State Senate shares this view and has helped move this bill forward to become law."
"However, Bird strongly encourages all riders to wear helmets and drive safely," the company added.
The wounded could quickly discover that their ability to pursue the scooter industry is limited.
Bird and Lime, the two largest companies, demand that consumers agree not to sue – individually or as part of a class action – and instead turn to a form of mediation called "binding arbitration" to be able to use their scooters. . They both refer to specific arbitration companies, while Bird also appoints a preferred venue for arbitration and Lime requires users that they engage in a first place. 60-day dialogue with the company.
Bird states that its user agreement "represents an industry standard" among "transportation technology companies".
Skip recently informed users that its arbitration agreement would be binding on users as of Friday. Skip said the company was adding the arbitration provision as part of the redesign of its user contract as the company expanded across the country. In a statement, Skip said the changes "make the terms and conditions clearer, more informative and more effective."
Consumer advocates have long criticized binding arbitration, believing that they disadvantage consumers. Arbitration clauses – which often appear as final clauses in user contracts and contracts with employees – have become an essential feature of the business contracts used by many of the country's most recognized brands in many countries. many sectors.
Arbitration clauses also appear in service contracts involving physical risks, such as car rental contracts, skateparks and large theme parks such as Universal Studios and Six Flags. Bike sharing programs, such as Capital Bikeshare and LimeBike, which also offer electric scooters, have also turned to arbitrage.
"In binding arbitration, companies have a head start," said Remington A. Gregg, a civil justice and consumer rights lawyer at Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization.
All companies do not rely on arbitration. This spring, Uber stopped requiring passengers to report being sexually harassed or assaulted for binding arbitration after protesting that the service was seeking to protect its drivers. complaints of sexual misconduct.
Electric scooters arrived while bike sharing systems also spread across the country. Both companies face the same challenges: intensive use, mechanical breakdowns and vandalism. Bikeshare Capital, which has more than 4,300 bikes in the DC region, said it employs skilled technicians with maintenance experience and daily inspections of bicycles and bike share stations.
The district has seen a slight increase in injuries related to electric scooters since their introduction, but not as important as in other cities, said a doctor at George Washington University Hospital – probably because of the proliferation of bike lanes in the city.
With respect to scooters, the manufacturer's guidelines state that the devices should not be left out overnight, but often in Santa Monica, "they are left on the walks, Catherine Lerer, a lawyer specializing in injuries to Santa Monica who has received a hundred calls from people injured by scooters in recent months.
John Montgomery is one of those who could join the wave of lawsuits against scooter companies. The 47-year-old said he was driving his Bird for only a few blocks in July when the accelerator was stuck as he approached an intersection in Los Angeles, provoking the "scooter" and the body of the bars.
Montgomery was awake at the sight of a stranger standing on him and called an ambulance. He had landed on his face, he said breaking his jaw in two places and flowing blood from his ears.
"They took me to the emergency room crying and screaming," he said. "I had never had so much pain in my life."
Montgomery, who plans to sue Bird, has spent almost a week in the hospital. He continues to take painkillers and continues to eat meals with a straw. He had to be out of work and feels nervous every time he has to cross a street.
"These companies just put these scooters as fast as possible, but they do not maintain them and do not check their safety," he said. "Honestly, I do not think they care if I live or die."
He did not hear of Bird, but he recently noticed that the company had accused him of staying on the street, bloody and unconscious.
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