Uber Jump Scooters’ Lack of Safety Signals Endangers Drivers, Class Action Lawsuit Claims

Consumers who rent Uber Jump scooters are faced with an impossible choice, a new class action lawsuit argues: obey traffic laws and risk their personal safety or follow the safety instructions and violate traffic laws.

Either way, the consumers lose.

The problem is that the Uber electric scooters aren’t equipped with safety signals, according to the class action lawsuit filed by lead plaintiff Erin Norman. And Uber, which operated the Jump scooter rental company until recently, didn’t retrofit them with the safety equipment before turning them loose on city streets.

As a result, Norman says she was thrown off a rented electric scooter while trying to execute a turn signal with her hand in San Francisco last year and was hurt so badly her hip was dislocated.

The injury required hours-long emergency surgery, she said.

Norman brought the class action lawsuit against Uber and Neutron Holdings Inc., parent company of fellow scooter rental business Lime, which bought Jump in May. Also named as defendants in the class action lawsuit are Segway Inc. and Xioami USA, which the court documents say manufacture the scooters offered for rent by Jump.

The plaintiff is seeking to represent a Class of other Jump customers who also rented scooters in California and were either harmed or exposed to harm. She and her lawyers estimate there could be hundreds of thousands of potential Class Members.

Among the allegations Norman is making are product liability and negligence, breach of warranty and unfair competition law violations. She has asked the court for a jury trial and is seeking monetary damages and a court order to prevent the rental companies from providing scooters without turn safety signals, or doing so without properly warning renters in advance.

Jump, Lime and other scooter rental companies began marketing their service as a “purportedly safe and convenient way to navigate cities as opposed to public transportation or automobiles” around 2017, and the businesses have taken off in cities across the country, according to the class action lawsuit.

Uber in particular amassed a Jump fleet of tens of thousands of electric scooters, Norman claims.

The scooters were reportedly advertised as “fun, affordable, and easy to use.”

To rent them, consumers download the Jump app on their smartphone or mobile device, create an account and then use the app to reserve a scooter at their desired location. Once they arrive at the scooter, the customer uses the app to activate the electric vehicle, and away they go.

Scooter manufacturers warn that safe operation of the scooters requires both hands on the handlebars at all times, the class action lawsuit says.

That’s due to the design of the devices.

An electric scooter’s handlebars and tires are on the same axis of rotation and the front wheel is almost directly in line with where the rider stands, according to Norman’s class action lawsuit. The handlebars are relatively small, meaning small movements can cause sharp turns of the front wheel. The wheels are also small and solid, so they are less forgiving and more prone to wobbling than those of a bicycle, the class action lawsuit says.

“In other words, scooters have a much smaller margin for error than bicycles and much more easily become unstable with less movement,” the class action lawsuit states.

In the absence of turn signals, the driver is forced to make hand signals in traffic to obey local traffic laws. Taking one hand off the handlebars while the electric scooter is in motion becomes dangerous, Norman says.

“If an electric scooter rider takes his or her hand off the handlebars to signal that the rider is turning or stopping, as the California Vehicle Code requires, the rider’s risk of losing control and crashing is greatly increased,” the class action lawsuit says. “Complying with the law puts the scooter rider at great risk.”

Norman says she rented one of the Uber Jump electric scooters Oct. 29, 2019, in San Francisco.

About 15 minutes later, at the intersection of Pierce and Haight streets, she reportedly took her hand off the handlebars to signal a turn and the scooter became unstable. Unable to regain control immediately, Norman was thrown to the pavement, she said.

She was rushed to the hospital, required emergency surgery and later underwent months of medical care and physical therapy. Her recovery is ongoing, the class action lawsuit claims.

“There is no excuse for defendants not to add turn signals to the electric scooters deployed on the unsuspecting public,” Norman argues in her class action lawsuit over the Uber Jump scooters. “If these defendants cared about the safety of their riders, they would add turn signals to every scooter in their fleet.”

Have you ever rented Uber Jump scooters to travel around city streets? Were you ever injured because the scooter didn’t have safety signals? Tell us about it in the comment section below.

Norman and the proposed Class Members are represented by Todd D. Carpenter of Carlson Lynch LLP and Jesse Hindman of Hindman APC.

The Uber Jump Scooters Class Action Lawsuit is Erin Norman, et al. v. Uber Technologies, Inc., et al., Case No. 3:20-cv-06700-SK, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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