Lime scooters: Injuries appear to fall after two Council bans

The ban on Lime scooters seems to have worked – with injuries that have dropped significantly since the company had its license suspended in two cities last week.

MORE: Council updates on Lime ban

More than 1,300 people are injured using e-scooters since their introduction to New Zealand in October – a total of $ 643,337 in Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) claims, showing the latest figures .

A breakdown of the numbers, released to Herald this afternoon, shows a dramatic decline in injuries last week compared to previous weeks.

Although the numbers do not break down during the day, it appears that Friday's ban stopped for further mishaps ̵[ads1]1; 41 people sent ACC claims last year for e-scooter related injuries, compared to 95 and 111 in the first two weeks of February .

The number has not been as low as 41 since Lime scooters were introduced in October, when 33 claims were made for the week beginning October 14.

The most damaging week since Limes beat the streets was the beginning of February 3, when 111 people sent claims.

However, an ACC spokesman said that the numbers do not always reflect when the incident occurred, but also when the claim was filed.

On Friday, Lime's licenses had been temporarily revoked by Auckland and then the Dunedin Councils in increasing security issues following a series of events where the front wheels of e-scooters unexpectedly locked.

The Auckland Council said when it was recommended by Lime that it had identified 155 reported irregular braking events that may have been caused by the unexpected lock problem – 92 of them were in Auckland and the 30 resulted in damage.

This appears to be stated in the figures, showing that Auckland users accounted for more than half (716) of the ACC requirements, followed by Christchurch with 383 requirements.

The majority of the claims (1210) related to loss of balance / Personal control, followed by collisions or beatings (30). Soft tissue lesions were the most common, with 657 claims, followed by cuts at 428, and fractures or dislocations with 218 requirements.

By comparison, 1768 bicycle damage claims in the first two weeks of February and 148 motorcycle injuries in the same period, totaled nearly $ 46,000 and counting.

During mid-October, more than $ 8 million in ACC claims have been paid out in bicycle damages. while motorcycle injuries peaked at $ 2.2m in the same period.

Dunedin Hospital had also seen a decline in people who came to the emergency department with e-scooter related injuries. But this seemed to follow a natural decline.

Dr. John Chambers, clinical leader of the Dunedin Hospital Emergency Department, said they had treated a number of e-scooter patients with "painful and severe injuries" in recent weeks. [19659018] "We haven't collected actual numbers, but we anecdotally saw basically about five to seven presentations per day, directly attributable to Lime scooters," he said.

"This figure had reduced in recent weeks to more than one and two a day before the removal of scooters over the weekend."

He urged the riders to "make sense, stay safe and wear a helmet" if e- scooters are allowed on the street.

"Helmets are now compulsory in Brisbane for good reason," he said. "It is also important that scooter users realize that pedestrians cannot hear them coming up behind them with some speed."

Both Auckland and Counties Manukau DHB said that they did not specifically record data on Lime scooter damage.

More than 185,000 riders have taken nearly a million trips on Lime scooters in Auckland alone since its launch in October. The San Francisco-based company estimated that it has prevented more than 300,000 driving.

But it was the increasing number of injuries that asked Auckland Council to ban them from city streets. On Friday, the Council took action to revoke Lime's operating license and said, "Security is not negotiable".

Earlier this month, Auckland's man Liam Thompson, 27, deleted his jaw and suffered a series of cuts and pokes after his Lime scooter unlocked in the middle of the trip, threw him over the board.

Last week, Mohsen Ansari spoke down Parnell Rise on a Lime scooter when the front wheel locked and sent him sprawling forward, rupturing the meniscus in his knee. [19659004] Meanwhile, it is still unclear when a decision on the Lime future in Auckland is being made. The Council has not yet received the information it has requested from the company, after which it will take another 24 hours to make a decision.

Yesterday, Auckland Council said it had received thousands of emails in the days since Lime's operational license was suspended – the majority in favor of keeping them on the streets.

It came as Lime bosses apologized to Kiwi users and said it was hard to earn their trust. But Mitchell Price, Lime's director of government affairs and strategy, safe riders, were scooters safe, and a series of firmware updates were already installed on all of their New Zealand-based e-scooters to correct the brake problem.