SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - A local college professor says her a electric scooter ride ended painfully after the scooter turned off in the middle of the ride.
Jenny Mahoney, a professor of biology and kinesiology at Point Loma Nazarene University, was with three friends on scooters in December, headed to December Nights in Balboa Park. She says her friends were on Bird scooters, while she was on a Lime scooter with plenty of charge. The ride came to an end two minutes along Harbor Drive near the airport.
"I was in the bike lane and went from full speed to a dead stop," said Mahoney.
She says the screen went blank as the scooter shut down. She remembers her body slamming into the handlebars and was then thrown off the scooter.
"A lot of pain. I wasn't able to breathe. Got the wind knocked out of me," said Mahoney.
Mahoney says one of her friends crashed into her. He got up and carried her out of the bike lane. She suffered a broken bone in her hand, and a sprained wrist and ankle.
"You assume when you're on these scooters and following all the safety rules rules, you're going to get to your destination safely, but that didn't happen," said Mahoney.
The question now: Has it happened before? Mahoney filed a claim with Lime before hiring attorney Evan Walker. Walker tells 10News he just got another call from a Seattle tourist whose wife remains hospitalized in San Diego from a similar incident with a Lime scooter.
"My understanding is that there have been numerous complaints of a similar nature made about these devices and that Lime is well aware of these complaints," said Walker.
In late February, Lime issued a warning to riders of a technical bug that caused sudden excessive braking, usually downhill. Lime says in those cases, the scooter didn't shut off. While Mahoney doesn't know if those cases are related, she doesn't believe her incident is the only one.
"I want them to take responsibilities for these injuries that are occurring ... and I want people to be aware, it's not as safe as they think it is," said Mahoney.
A Lime spokesperson declined to talk about Mahoney's incident but issued the following statement: “Our entire global fleet has now been fully updated with the final firmware fix that appears to have eliminated occurrences of excessive braking, and we continue to closely monitor the issue to ensure it is categorically resolved.”
