San Francisco, CA – August 19, 2020 – A mass action lawsuit was filed against Neutron Holdings, Inc. (aka Lime) in San Francisco Superior Court today alleging the company deploys poorly manufactured scooters throughout the nation and purposefully fails to properly maintain those same scooters.
Headquartered in San Francisco, Lime claims to offer “Smart Mobility For The Modern World” and yet numerous riders of Lime scooters have suffered severe injuries including head trauma, broken legs, broken wrists, shattered teeth and more as the result of mechanical errors caused by extreme negligence.
The roughly 46 individuals named in the mass action complained of their scooters having:
- Defective or poorly maintained brakes;
- Defective or poorly maintained throttles;
- Defective or poorly maintained wheels;
- Faulty geofencing; and
- Defective or poorly maintained handlebars.
The lawsuit contends that Lime and Segway (which manufactures the scooters used by Lime) does not properly maintain the scooters but deploys them into the public taking no measures to inspect or maintain them. In fact, Lime use of its “juicers” – people who pick up, charge, and redeploy the scooters – demonstrates the company’s negligent attitude toward safety. Juicers are not paid by Lime until the scooters are charged and redeployed, and those juicers are not paid if they inform Lime that the scooter is defective and/or fail to put them back into rotation.
“These injuries are a clear sign that Lime does not care at all about its customers,” said attorney Mike Arias. “Being environmentally conscious and riding a scooter to avoid driving should never result in a traumatic brain injury, a shattered fibula, or a concussion; and yet dozens upon dozens of people suffered these injuries and worse.”
The lead plaintiff in the case, Danny Aguilar of New York, was on his Lime electric scooter in Fort Lauderdale, FL and required surgery after fracturing his wrist when his Lime scooter’s brakes malfunctioned and he hit a pothole while trying to avoid oncoming traffic.
Other plaintiffs suffered even more serious injuries, including:
- Chelse Greaux of North Hollywood, CA ruptured her left patellar tendon when she applied the brakes and her scooter skidded out from under her;
- One person suffered a fractured left patella requiring surgery with hardware in Venice, CA;
- Another person suffered multiple cracked and chipped teeth as well as a hematoma and concussion in Hollywood, CA;
- A man suffered a brain bleed, traumatic brain injury, skull fracture and loss of consciousness in Cincinnati, OH;
- A man suffered a broken forearm radius and ulna requiring surgery with hardware in San Francisco, CA;
- A man in Arizona was thrown from his scooter, lost consciousness and suffered a broken nose; and,
- In Baldwin Park, CA a woman was riding a scooter with a broken throttle that suddenly accelerated caused her to be thrown off which left her with a fractured left tibia, fibula and ankle.
“The number of injured Lime riders across the country, as well as the severity of their injuries, makes it clear that Lime cares more about profit than the safety of their riders,” said attorney Catherine Lerer of McGee Lerer & Associates.
The injuries listed in the complaint occurred in Florida, California, Ohio, Arizona, Washington, Texas, Illinois, Nevada, Kentucky and Washington, D.C.
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The case is Danny Aguilar, et al. v. Lime, Segway, San Francisco Superior Court, Case No. CGC-20-586037. To read, go to: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g7wjUhgPp4N51dcQwDqyg4RxkJPxRDf-/view?usp=sharing