Denver metro area residents sue scooter company for "dangerous" transportation devices

Denver resident Tim Valdez says every time he thinks about the incident, he wishes he had a reset button.

"When I see them on the road, when I have to try to get around them on the sidewalks," said Valdez. "It's a constant reminder of what happened."

Valdez is referring to the hundreds of scooters scattered throughout downtown Denver. One of which changed his life forever.

"Used to ride my bike a lot, used to go hiking and camping and just enjoying being a Coloradan," said Valdez.

Now, Valdez is wheelchair-bound, paralyzed throughout most of his body, after suffering from a spinal injury from falling off a scooter back in August 2022.

"Tetraplegic they call it," he said. "I can move my arms, can't work my hands, so that's kind of been my life since that day."

Valdez took the scooter home after spending some time at a bar, thinking it would be a better alternative to driving home.

"I hit a pothole, turns out, in the middle of the road that I didn't see," he said. "My left hand came off the handlebar, and the whole thing just started shimmying and I just thought, 'Oh I better jump off this thing.' Well, this all happened in a fraction of a second, and I hit the back of a parked car."

While Valdez continues to keep his spirits high, even two years since the incident, he says it's still tough not having the same independence he previously had.

"Now it's three times a day, taking a lot of pills. I go to the doctor on average once every three weeks probably," said Valdez. "From feeding to bathing to using the restroom, I can't do any of it by myself."

Valdez is now one of two lawsuits being filed by the same Denver law firm against Lime, the company whose scooter he used.

"We're alleging that it is unreasonably dangerous both in the design of the scooter itself and also the warnings in some of the app design issues," said Sean Dormer, Valdez's attorney.

The lawsuit, filed last month, alleges these scooters were not built with safety in mind, which leads to people like Valdez becoming susceptible to injury.

"The wheels are too small, the suspension is too little, the center of gravity is too high," said Dormer. "They have really poor app design that does literally nothing to help discourage any sort of behavior or riding when people are impaired or even helping people notice when they're impaired."

Dormer added, "He's facing probably tens of millions of dollars of future medical expenses and his family is taking on a really huge burden."

In another lawsuit filed just this week against the scooter company, a woman in Thornton argues she ended up in the ER because there was a malfunction with the scooter.

The incident happened on July 8, 2022.

"Not very far into the ride, I felt a jolt in the front of the scooter and flipped forward and landed on the pavement," said Heather Graham.

Graham says she had taken scooters in the past, but this was the first time something like this had ever happened to her.  

"I had some broken bones, broken cheekbone, fractures, scrapes, all that kind of stuff," she said.

A Lime spokesperson issued a statement in response to questions about the lawsuits: "We cannot comment on active litigation. safety is our top priority at Lime and guides everything we do."

Lime shared several ways they say they've worked to address safety for riders:

·  From 2021 through 2024, 99.99% of Lime rides globally have ended without a reported incident. We continue to make progress toward our goal of being the safest micromobility operator in the industry. In 2024 the global incident rate per million trips dropped by 13% from 2023 and 35% from 2022.

·  Lime is planning additional comprehensive integrated safe-riding and proper-parking campaigns in Denver including in-person events, community partnerships, in-field activations, social media, and continued communication with our riders via in-app and email messages. 

·  This year we're applying to build 150 more parking corrals with vertical signage that will make them easier to find, we're installing Mandatory Parking Zones in key areas, and we're working on enhanced, AI-assisted technology to continue cracking down on sidewalk riding and check end trip photos to ensure properly parked vehicles.

·  Around the world and in Denver, Lime is constantly communicating with its riders on how to obey the rules of the road and ride safely, as well as ensuring people know how to park properly. The vast majority of riders know and follow the rules, but for those who don't, Lime warns them and encourages improvement, but reserves the right to fine and potentially even ban repeat offenders. 

Still, both plaintiffs in these lawsuits believe there should be some accountability on the company to improve the safety of these transportation devices, if not remove them from use altogether.

"I'd rather walk an extra two miles than get on something that might hurt me," said Graham.

"I thought if I can save one person from having my experience, then that's something I got to do," said Valdez.