NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand

Lime scooters: Injuries appear to drop following two council bans

Patrice Dougan
By Patrice Dougan
Assistant Chief of Staff·NZ Herald·
26 Feb, 2019 01:52 AM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

LIVE: The latest update on the Lime scooter ban
LIVE: The latest update on the Lime scooter ban
Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
/
Duration 0:00
Loaded: 0%
0:00
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time -0:00
 
1x
    • Chapters
    • descriptions off, selected
    • captions settings, opens captions settings dialog
    • captions off, selected

      This is a modal window.

      Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.

      Text
      Text Background
      Caption Area Background
      Font Size
      Text Edge Style
      Font Family

      End of dialog window.

      This is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button.

      Auckland Council 'can't stop' building on flood plains under current legislation

      UP NEXT:

      Autoplay in
      3
      Disable Autoplay
      Cancel Video
      Earlier: The latest update on the Lime scooter ban
      NOW PLAYING • LIVE: The latest update on the Lime scooter ban
      LIVE: The latest update on the Lime scooter ban

      The ban on Lime scooters appears to have worked - with injuries dropping significantly since the company had its licence suspended in two cities last week.

      MORE: Council updates on Lime ban

      More than 1300 people have been injured using e-scooters since their introduction to New Zealand in October - totalling $643,337 in Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) claims, latest figures reveal.

      A breakdown of the figures, released to the Herald this afternoon, shows a dramatic decrease in injuries for last week when compared to previous weeks.

      While the figures are not broken down by day, it appears Friday's ban put a halt to further mishaps - 41 people lodged ACC claims last week for e-scooter related injuries, compared to 95 and 111 in the first two weeks of February.

      Advertisement
      Advertise with NZME.
      Advertisement
      Advertise with NZME.

      The figure hasn't been as low as 41 since Lime scooters were introduced in October, when 33 injury claims were made for the week beginning October 14.

      The most injury-prone week since Limes hit the streets was that beginning February 3, when 111 people lodged claims.

      However, a spokesman for ACC said the figures don't always reflect when the incident occurred, but rather when the claim was lodged.

      Advertisement
      Advertise with NZME.

      On Friday, Lime had its licences temporarily revoked by Auckland and then Dunedin councils amid growing safety concerns following a number of incidents in which the front wheels on the e-scooters unexpectedly locked.

      Auckland Council said at the time it had been advised by Lime that it had identified 155 reported irregular braking incidents which may have been caused by the unexpected locking issue - 92 of which were in Auckland, and of those 30 resulted in injury.

      This appears to be borne out in the figures, which show Auckland users accounted for more than half (716) of the ACC claims, followed by Christchurch with 383 claims.

      The majority of claims (1210) related to loss of balance/personal control, followed by collisions or being knocked over (30).

      Discover more

      Business

      Lockup at 40km/h: more terrifying Lime scooter stories

      19 Feb 12:17 AM
      New Zealand

      Auckland Council demands more transparency from Lime scooters

      19 Feb 04:55 AM
      Freight and logistics

      Lime scooters stay off the streets

      24 Feb 07:22 PM
      New Zealand

      Hundreds of Auckland streets to have speed limits dropped

      26 Feb 03:40 AM

      Soft tissue injuries were the most common, with 657 claims, followed by cuts at 428, and fractures or dislocations with 218 claims.

      In comparison, there were 1768 bicycle injury claims in the first two weeks of February, and 148 motorcycle injuries in the same period, totalling almost $46,000 and counting.

      More than $8m in ACC claims has been paid out in bicycle injuries since mid-October, while motorbike injuries topped $2.2m in the same period.

      Dunedin Hospital had also seen a decrease in people arriving to the emergency department with e-scooter related injuries. However, this seemed to follow a natural decline.

      Dr John Chambers, clinical leader Dunedin Hospital Emergency Department, said they had treated a number of e-scooter patients with "painful and serious injuries" in the past few weeks.

      "We have not collated actual numbers, but anecdotally, initially we saw around five to seven presentations per day directly attributable to Lime scooters," he said.

      "This number had reduced in recent weeks to more like one and two per day, prior to the removal of the scooters over the weekend."

      He urged riders to "be sensible, stay safe and wear a helmet" should the e-scooters be allowed back on the streets.

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

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

      Advertisement
      Advertise with NZME.

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

      But it was the growing number of injuries that spurred Auckland Council to ban them from city streets. On Friday, the council took the steps to revoke Lime's operating licence, saying "safety is not negotiable".

      Earlier this month, Auckland man Liam Thompson, 27, broke his jaw and suffered a range of cuts and grazes after his Lime scooter locked up mid-ride, throwing him over the handlebars.

      Last week Mohsen Ansari was speeding down Parnell Rise on a Lime scooter when the front wheel locked up and sent him sprawling forwards, rupturing the meniscus in his knee.

      Meanwhile, it is still unclear when a decision on Lime's future in Auckland will be made. The council has yet to receive the information it requested from the company, following which it will take a further 24 hours to make a decision.

      Auckland Council yesterday said it had received thousands of emails in the days since it suspended Lime's operating licence - the majority in favour of keeping them on the streets.

      Advertisement
      Advertise with NZME.

      It came as Lime bosses apologised to Kiwi users, and said it was working hard to earn their trust. However, Mitchell Price, Lime's director of government affairs and strategy, assured riders the scooters were safe, and a series of firmware fixes had already been installed on all its New Zealand-based e-scooters to rectify the braking issue.

      Save

        Share this article

      Latest from New Zealand

      New ZealandUpdated

      David Seymour sworn in as Deputy PM, marking new Act milestone

      31 May 02:24 AM
      Politics

      David Seymour speaks to the media after being sworn in as the new Deputy PM

      New Zealand

      Woman dies after water-related incident at East Auckland beach

      31 May 01:06 AM

      Gold demand soars amid global turmoil

      sponsored
      Advertisement
      Advertise with NZME.
      Recommended for you
      David Seymour sworn in as Deputy PM, marking new Act milestone
      New Zealand

      David Seymour sworn in as Deputy PM, marking new Act milestone

      31 May 02:24 AM
      'Wouldn’t change it for the world': Metcalf embraces fatherhood
      Warriors

      'Wouldn’t change it for the world': Metcalf embraces fatherhood

      31 May 02:00 AM
      Woman dies after water-related incident at East Auckland beach
      New Zealand

      Woman dies after water-related incident at East Auckland beach

      31 May 01:06 AM
      Driver dies after rolling car in a Waikato paddock
      New Zealand

      Driver dies after rolling car in a Waikato paddock

      31 May 12:26 AM
      Dargaville water crisis: Businesses face losses and residents raise health concerns
      Northern Advocate

      Dargaville water crisis: Businesses face losses and residents raise health concerns

      31 May 12:09 AM

      Latest from New Zealand

      David Seymour sworn in as Deputy PM, marking new Act milestone

      David Seymour sworn in as Deputy PM, marking new Act milestone

      31 May 02:24 AM

      Seymour is the 19th person to hold New Zealand’s deputy prime ministership.

      David Seymour speaks to the media after being sworn in as the new Deputy PM

      David Seymour speaks to the media after being sworn in as the new Deputy PM

      Woman dies after water-related incident at East Auckland beach

      Woman dies after water-related incident at East Auckland beach

      31 May 01:06 AM
      Driver dies after rolling car in a Waikato paddock

      Driver dies after rolling car in a Waikato paddock

      31 May 12:26 AM
      Explore the hidden gems of NSW
      sponsored

      Explore the hidden gems of NSW

      NZ Herald
      • About NZ Herald
      • Meet the journalists
      • Newsletters
      • Classifieds
      • Help & support
      • Contact us
      • House rules
      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms of use
      • Competition terms & conditions
      • Our use of AI
      Subscriber Services
      • NZ Herald e-editions
      • Daily puzzles & quizzes
      • Manage your digital subscription
      • Manage your print subscription
      • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
      • Subscribe to Herald Premium
      • Gift a subscription
      • Subscriber FAQs
      • Subscription terms & conditions
      • Promotions and subscriber benefits
      NZME Network
      • The New Zealand Herald
      • The Northland Age
      • The Northern Advocate
      • Waikato Herald
      • Bay of Plenty Times
      • Rotorua Daily Post
      • Hawke's Bay Today
      • Whanganui Chronicle
      • Viva
      • NZ Listener
      • What the Actual
      • Newstalk ZB
      • BusinessDesk
      • OneRoof
      • Driven CarGuide
      • iHeart Radio
      • Restaurant Hub
      NZME
      • About NZME
      • NZME careers
      • Advertise with NZME
      • Digital self-service advertising
      • Book your classified ad
      • Photo sales
      • NZME Events
      • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
      TOP
      search by queryly Advanced Search