The bloody consequences of the electric scooter revolution

A person rides a Bird Rides Inc. shared electric scooter on the Embarcadero in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Friday, April 13, 2018. GPS-enabled scooters and bicycles are spreading across several major U.S. cities, driven by a wave of venture capital into a handful of companies. Policymakers are scrambling to find ways to regulate the great scooter boom of 2018. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

A lawsuit targeting electric scooter-sharing companies seizes on the dangers of zipping around town on two wheels and brings gory detail to one of the more polarising technology trends to emerge over the last year. 

Nine people who were injured by electric scooters filed the class-action suit on Oct 19 in Los Angeles County Superior Court. It accuses startups Bird Rides Inc and Lime – as well as their manufacturers Xiaomi Corp and Segway Inc – of gross negligence, claiming the companies knew the scooters were dangerous and deployed them in a way that was certain to cause injuries.