![\"\"](\"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Lime-scooters.jpg\")
<\/p>\nPrice also noted that Lime is working with consumer protection agencies around the world to ensure that its devices meet \u201crigorous safety expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n
At least one of those investigations involved the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which began working with Lime in November after The Post reported that the company\u2019s scooters\u00a0had been breaking apart for months while people were riding them<\/a>. The company had continued to rent out structurally unsound scooters despite receiving warnings from company mechanics and other workers, Lime employees told The Post.<\/p>\n Before Lime publicly acknowledged the potential fire hazard involving its batteries, some employees raised concerns internally about whether the company was doing enough to address safety risks with its scooters, according to a Lime mechanic speaking on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution for commenting publicly. The mechanic provided images of internal Slack messages in which another employee also raises concerns.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel that these scoots, or the product as a whole, should be removed from the market until they are safe to handle and operate,\u201d one employee wrote in the \u201cmechanics\u201d Slack room. \u201cI get that the scoots are expendable and replaceable, but are we now resigned to say the same for the safety of employees and customers?\u201d<\/p>\n This month, a 21-year-old exchange student from Ireland was killed in an accident involving a Lime scooter.<\/p>\n Police say Mark Sands was riding a Lime scooter and traveling in the wrong direction on a busy downtown street in Austin when he was struck by an Uber driver, leaving him badly injured. He was taken to a hospital but died the next day, authorities said.<\/p>\n Though no official tally is known, an unofficial count suggests that Sands is at least the third person to die in an accident involving the electric mobility devices, which have swept across the nation in the past year.<\/p>\n Jacoby Stoneking \u2014 a 24-year-old Dallas man \u2014 died after falling off a Lime electric scooter in September and receiving blunt-force head injuries, authorities said. Carlos Sanchez-Martin of Silver Spring, Md.,\u00a0was fatally struck by an SUV in September<\/a>\u00a0while riding a Lime scooter in Washington.<\/p>\n One evening in late December, Thomas \u2013\u2013 a congressional staff member who asked to have his last name withheld due to the sensitive nature of his work \u2013\u2013 hopped on a Lime scooter to make his way home. As his scooter reached about 12 miles per hour three blocks later, he said, the device\u2019s brakes seized up without warning. Thomas was thrown onto the street and used his wrist to break his fall.<\/p>\n \u201cIt felt like an ejection seat,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Fortunately, he recalled, there were no cars or people nearby, but the impact did break his elbow.<\/p>\n “When I came into work my boss, who is a member of Congress, asked what happened,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I explained how the injury happened, she said, \u2018There needs to be a law regulating these devices,\u2019 and I told her I agreed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cImagine if your car just suddenly locked its brakes on the highway,\u201d he added. \u201cThat would never be allowed to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Nearly two months later, Thomas said, his body has mostly healed, but his outrage at Lime continues to fester.<\/p>\n \u201cI was such an evangelist, telling everyone that scooters are great,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery time I see one now, I want to kick it.”<\/p>\n<\/article>\n\n
A Lime scooter stands available for rent in Washington. (Luz Lazo\/The Washington Post) The company says anyone riding its scooters should exercise extreme caution. Lime, one of the world\u2019s largest electric scooter companies, is urging riders to be extra cautious while operating its devices because of a technical \u201cbug\u201d that can cause…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":12329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12328"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12328"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12331,"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12328\/revisions\/12331"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}