Lime scooter rider died after doing 'complete 180-degree turn' in the air

A coroner was unable to determine the exact cause of a scooter rider’s fatal accident, after the Lime company removed its scooter and took it apart before police could inspect it. 

Lime’s actions led to “gaps in the evidence” during a coroner’s inquiry that has dragged on for nearly seven years. 

Coroner Alexander Ho released his findings today into the death of Toben John Hunt, 23, known as Toby, who fell from a Lime scooter on Westhaven Drive, Auckland, on September 20, 2019. 

A witness said Hunt looked over his right shoulder shortly before the accident and the scooter’s rear wheel then lifted quickly and he went over the handlebars. 

The witness, who had been driving behind the victim, said Hunt “performed a complete 180-degree turn in the air” before he hit the ground. 

The coroner said Hunt, who was not wearing a helmet, died of head injuries. 

Hunt had been drinking before the crash and was nearly four times over the alcohol limit for driving a car. 

The coroner said this might have been a contributory factor, but he was “not in any way implying that Toby was primarily responsible for his own death or that he was operating the scooter in an unsafe manner”. 

Type of scooter no longer used 

The type of Lime Gen 2.5 scooter Hunt was riding is no longer in operation. 

The one he was on that night had been serviced six days before the accident. 

Hunt fell from the scooter about 6.11pm and was taken to hospital, where he died. 

About three hours after the accident, and after becoming aware of the crash, Lime remotely disabled the scooter, which was still on the side of the road. 

A Lime representative then visually inspected it at the scene about 9.35pm before taking it back to a Lime warehouse. 

The company carried out physical and telemetry checks, taking the scooter apart and testing its internal motor wires with a voltmeter. 

Coroner Alexander Ho conducted the inquiry into Toben Hunt's death. Photo / NZME 

It found no material damage to the scooter parts, including the headlight, screen, brake, grips, throttle, central control unit or internal motor wires. 

Lime later engaged a United States-based engineering firm to review the telemetry data, particularly whether the scooter had braked unexpectedly, which had happened before with other scooters. 

It found it did not, and Lime advised the coroner there had been no reports of wheel-lock issues on Lime scooters anywhere in the world in the six months before Hunt’s accident. 

Auckland Council also engaged an engineering firm, Eliga, to review Lime’s investigation, which reported that data from Hunt’s scooter’s electronic control unit had not been retrieved. 

Eliga said it was unable to comment fully because Lime had not given it all the required information and some data was not in a format it could use. 

Coroner Ho said he issued a statutory notice to Lime to provide more information so Eliga could make a “more fulsome” report. 

The Eliga report said the scooter was being ridden at 24.8km/h just before the accident and that Hunt did not apply the brakes in the last 30 seconds. 

Taking scooter apart was a ‘standard’ protocol 

Lime told the coroner that in taking the scooter apart, it was carrying out “standard post-incident safety and maintenance protocols” to identify any potential risks that may be common to other scooters in its fleet. 

Hunt’s family, however, said Lime should have left it at the scene for the police to examine. 

Three months after the accident, a police investigator visited the Lime headquarters in Auckland and had them reassemble Hunt’s scooter, which he then inspected. 

He noticed some isolated defects and that the scooter lacked a stop plate or mechanism that would prevent a user from over-steering or turning the front wheel to 90 degrees. 

But the coroner said the way the scooter was handled after the crash resulted in “gaps in evidence” for his inquiry. 

“Specifically, there was no opportunity for the police to independently examine the scooter and no record of or independent examination of the firmware or electronic hardware.” 

Coroner Ho said in the case of a rider reporting a fault, or a minor incident, a scooter hire company may prudently take the steps Lime did in removing the scooter and inspecting it for faults. 

“In the case of a serious crash, such as this one, it would have been plainly preferable for the scooter to have remained on scene so that appropriate crash investigations could have taken place,” the coroner said. 

Hunt’s family wanted the coroner to recommend that, in future, any scooters involved in fatal accidents should be preserved intact and made available to the police before any internal inspection or disassembly by the operator, or that police should be present when this happens. 

Coroner Ho said he did not have the legislative power to do this, but he referred the matter back to Auckland Council and the New Zealand Transport Agency for consideration. 

Coroner Ho said an independent expert has expressed views about the completeness of Lime’s investigations and the company’s conclusions. 

“The result is that it will never be known whether the missing inquiries might have shed material light on the cause of Toby’s fall.” 

Coroner Ho said that meant the best available evidence about what happened came from the driver who was following Hunt. 

He had said it looked as though Hunt turned the handlebars too quickly. 

This may have turned the front wheel 90 degrees to the direction of travel, leading Hunt to lose control. 

“The witness’s evidence is instructive in that it recounts some sort of abrupt interruption to motion, whether due to the scooter itself or from operator input, which caused Toby to be thrown off the scooter.” 

However, the coroner noted the driver did not have a clear view from where he was following Hunt. 

“I cannot determine the proximate event in the chain of events which caused Toby to fall off his scooter,” Coroner Ho said. 

The police and Eliga suggested reducing the maximum speed of e-scooters and making helmet use mandatory. 

The coroner said Lime scooters were generally capped at 25km/h and 15km/h in central Auckland. 

He declined to make a recommendation for a lower speed, saying “determining the point at which speed safety and speed productivity intersects is not one for the Coroners Court to make”. 

The coroner endorsed previous coronial recommendations asking the Ministry of Transport to consider making helmet use compulsory, or prioritising a safety campaign to promote it. 

Lime now voluntarily provides helmets with all its scooters in Auckland. 

Lime responds to coroner 

Lime said in response to the coroner’s report that it had co-operated fully with the inquiry and accepted the findings. 

It said it welcomed the coroner referring to Auckland Council and NZTA the question of preserving scooters involved in serious accidents. 

Lime said it would support making this an industry-wide standard as it reflected the company’s current procedures. 

“We note the coroner’s comments on helmet use and encourage all riders to wear a helmet every time they ride,” Lime said. 

“We extend our deepest condolences to Toben’s family and friends.” 

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay.