On Friday evening, a man was out with his partner on a wooden walkway alongside Westhaven Dr when he said he saw a man lying on the ground and two women trying to help him.
“The man was lying on the ground in a recovery position and next to him was the broken scooter. He seemed to be semi-conscious and have an ankle injury. He was struggling to open his eyes," the witness said.
“The man was in business attire, he was not a reckless youth.
“I didn’t see the incident but I’m surmising it snapped in two without him crashing into anything because there was nothing nearby he could have crashed into,” said the man, who did not want to be named.
The scooter's frame had broken where the board meets the vertical pole for the handlebars and the guy had been pitched off, the witness said.
A St John ambulance spokeswoman confirmed they attended an incident on Westhaven Dr just before 5pm and transported a person with a minor condition to Auckland Hospital. She was not able to say if the incident was related to a scooter accident.
The witness said Lime scooters had been discussed for safety reasons like breaking and reckless use, but not for snapping in two.
“I’m not against the scooters, I’ve downloaded the app and been meaning to have a go at it just for fun. I have no real strong feelings. I think they should be restricted and helmets used, but I don’t think they should be used at all if they snap in half,” the man said.
Lime said it was aware of the incident and investigating it.
“Any injury is one too many and we are currently investigating this incident. We are working closely with Auckland Council to manage and mitigate issues as they arise,” Lime public affairs manager for New Zealand Lauren Mentjox said.
“We will update local authorities in the first instance once we have all the details.”
Auckland Council general manager of licensing and regulatory compliance Craig Hobbs said Auckland Transport and Auckland Council had not been advised of the crash.
“We are checking with the operator to see if this incident has been reported to them. We expect Lime to follow up and advise us if any scooter malfunction is involved in any incident that has been brought to its attention,” he said.
“It is important to note that any incident reporting relies on the user informing the operator.”
When Auckland Council extended Lime’s trial period last month, it came with tougher safety and reporting conditions, including a requirement to report “serious safety incidents” anywhere in the world to officials within 48 hours.
Every scooter also has to undergo a mechanical inspection at least once a week.
The new measures, introduced after a temporary suspension of Lime’s licence, were a response to a number of incidents in which people were injured when the front wheel of the scooter they were riding unexpectedly locked.
The wheel-locking malfunction led to 155 reported incidents - 92 of which were in Auckland, and of those 30 resulted in injury, Lime said.
