Catastrophic E-Scooter Accident Leads To Product Liability Lawsuit

When machines have minds of their own, bad things can happen.  Cars probably can drive themselves, but given how dangerously they behave when left to their own devices, it will probably be a long time before we see fully self-driving vehicles for sale.  Current autonomous vehicle technologies are designed so that the human driver’s actions always have the final say in where the vehicle goes and when it brakes.  The only thing worse than a vehicle that can drive itself when left to its own devices is a vehicle that insists on driving itself even when you attempt to steer it out of danger.  For a few years, Lime electronic scooters programmed to follow GPS-directed routes were a common sight in certain Florida cities, and sometimes the results were disastrous.  If you have suffered severe injuries because of an accident caused by autonomous driving technology in an e-scooter or other motor vehicle, contact a Florida product liability lawyer.

Woman Suffers Traumatic Brain Injury After Lime Scooter Crashes Into Car

Lime scooters look a lot like those brightly colored, motor-less scooters that children ride, but they operate much more like a motor vehicle.  The Lime scooter programs in South Florida before the COVID-19 pandemic attracted controversy from the beginning because the bright green scooters existed in a legal gray area.  Riders could ride the scooters on city roads, just as you can a bicycle, but because Lime scooters cannot exceed 30 miles per hour, Florida law did not require people to wear helmets when riding a Lime scooter.

Just after Christmas in 2018, Ashanti Jordan, then 27, decided to ride a Lime scooter from her work at Broward General Hospital to her home in Lauderhill.  As with all Lime scooter rides, the Lime app on the rider’s phone determines the route by GPS, as if the scooter has a mind of its own.  Jordan’s scooter route took her down a residential street, where it collided with a car that was crossing an intersection.  The collision caused Jordan to fall in the road some distance from the scooter, suffering catastrophic injuries, including a severe traumatic brain injury. She was still in a coma a year and a half after the accident, according to the most recent available reports about her condition.

Jordan’s mother filed a product liability lawsuit against Lime in 2019.  Meanwhile, Florida suspended the Lime scooter program in early 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, but there was talk of bringing it back by the end of that year.  The safety rules regarding Lime scooters this time around are stricter, in order to prevent catastrophic accidents like this one.

Contact Halpern Santos & Pinkert About Product Liability Lawsuits

A product liability lawyer can help you recover compensation for your medical expenses and lost income if you suffered severe injuries because of a defect or unsafe feature of a vehicle or device.  Contact Halpern Santos & Pinkert, P.A. in Coral Gables, Florida to discuss your case.

Sources:

sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fort-lauderdale/fl-ne-scooter-lawsuit-20190211-story.html

washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/02/11/lime-scooter-accident-left-ashanti-jordan-vegetative-state-now-her-mother-is-suing-company-her-behalf/