Lime Scooter Lawsuit Alleges Malfunction Resulted in Traumatic Brain Injury Accident

Lawsuit claims Lime e-scooters suffer from multiple design defects that could be fixed to make the vehicles safer.

The makers of popular Lime e-scooters face a product liability lawsuit from an Indiana woman who says a defective design and poor maintenance led to her falling and suffering a traumatic brain injury, as well as other life-altering adverse health effects.

The complaint (PDF) was filed by Leah Dickens in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana late last month. It names Neutron Holdings Inc., which does business as Lime, as the sole defendant.

Dickens claims she suffered a traumatic brain injury and other serious, lasting harm after a Lime e-scooter malfunctioned and threw her from the device while she was riding it in Indianapolis in October 2024.

Electric Scooter Risks

Lime is a line of motorized electric scooters, or e-scooters, powered by rechargeable batteries. They are designed for short-distance travel on roads, bike lanes and sidewalks. Promoted as an eco-friendly alternative to cars, they, and similar brands of e-scooters, have become popular in urban and suburban areas as public rental transport.

However, the rise in popularity of Lime, Segway and similar devices has led to increasing concerns about rider safety and potential health risks. The devices are often provided without helmets, with no proper training or safety equipment of any kind. Additionally, they are often driven down sidewalks that may have uneven pavement, potholes, grates and other obstructions that could cause the rider to be thrown from the scooter.

There is often also the danger of collision with other pedestrians or vehicles while crossing a street. Though these risks are considered low, the speeds at which the devices travel can and have led to serious injuries and deaths for both riders and pedestrians.

Lime Scooter Lawsuit

According to Dickens’ complaint, she was riding the scooter in Indianapolis in October 2024, when she states the device malfunctioned, throwing her to the ground. The complaint indicates that she suffered a traumatic brain injury as a result of the accident, as well as other injuries.

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) occur when a sudden impact or movement of the head causes the brain to bounce or twist inside the skull. This can result in damaged brain cells, broken blood vessels and other long-term, or fatal, brain injuries.

These injuries can lead to temporary or permanent brain damage, resulting in cognition problems, memory loss, behavioral changes, slurred speech, blurred vision and other neurological side effects.

Dickens’ lawsuit alleges the Lime scooter had a number of design defects that made it dangerous to ride. It further claims the device could have been altered to make it safer, preventing Dickens’ injuries. For example, she states that the accelerator sticks, it has an unstable center of gravity, is deceptively powerful, has small, unstable wheels, and is prone to failures of its brakes, electrical components and batteries.

These problems make it easy to lose control of the scooters, which should have been redesigned once the problems became apparent, Dickens argues.

“The defects in the scooter that led to Leah Dickens’s injuries were the result of faulty maintenance of the scooter by Defendant. The scooter was not in conformity with the generally recognized state of the art applicable to the safety of the product at the time the product was designed, manufactured, packaged, and labeled.”

– Leah Dickens v. Neutron Holdings Inc.

Dickens presents claims of strict liability for manufacturing defect, failure to warn, negligence for design defect and common law negligence.

Electric Scooter Lawsuits

Lime is not the only manufacturer of e-scooter devices that has faced criticism in recent years for design defects and other issues leading to riders suffering serious injuries.

A Florida woman filed a product liability lawsuit earlier this year, claiming an electric scooter purchased on Amazon was defectively designed and suddenly gave way during normal use, causing her to be thrown forcefully onto the pavement.

In a separate case filed in February, a Kansas man alleged that a self-balancing Segway-Ninebot scooter abruptly lost power while he was riding, causing him to be ejected from the device and suffer severe, lasting arm injuries.

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