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‘Selfish Lime e-scooter rider blocked my drive – I want compensation’

Katie Morley Investigates: our reader was left terrified after her car was trapped

Dear Katie,
Yesterday when my husband arrived home, he discovered a Lime electric scooter dropped in the middle of our driveway, blocking access to our house. As a result no cars could go in or out.
For many people this would be a mere annoyance, but for my family not being able to get the car off the drive if needed was downright terrifying.
My husband has terminal cancer and our son has severe food allergies and has suffered anaphylaxis in the past. I also had an anaphylactic shock years ago, but luckily my husband was at home and he rushed me to hospital.
I arrived just on time as I stopped breathing in A&E – it was very lucky that we live five minutes from the hospital. A delay in treatment could have killed me.
My husband, who is very unwell, had to physically move the heavy scooter out of the way to get into our house. I called Lime and it apologised, saying it would collect the scooter and fine the driver.
This was not good enough for me, sadly. I told Lime I was expecting compensation for the trouble, but the lady on the phone said there would be no compensation. I still requested a call back from a manager and sent an email telling Lime that it should put in its guidelines very clearly that blocking driveways will generate a hefty fine.
I am not holding my breath for a reply, but as these electric scooters seem to be increasing in popularity, I feel this issue needs attention. These companies enable people to drop their vehicles anywhere, and this could cost a life one day.
– AH, Milton Keynes
Dear AH,
I was really sorry to hear about your husband’s cancer and the traumatic allergic reactions previously suffered by you and your son. You have clearly been through a lot as a family, and for this you have my every sympathy.
I also agree with you that these rentable electric scooters, although a convenient way to get around cities, can be incredibly irritating and antisocial if used inconsiderately.
Whichever selfish imbecile dumped it in front of your driveway deserves to be fined, and having spoken to Lime about the incident, I understand this has now happened.
Lime said it also bans repeat offenders from ever renting scooters ever again, so if this person dumps another one in an inconsiderate place, this seems a likely additional punishment.
However, although I recognise how distressing you found the scooter being left outside your home, I’m afraid I cannot support your request for compensation on this occasion.
Happily you didn’t have an urgent need to leave your home during the short time the scooter was situated there, and I’m satisfied that Lime did everything it could to resolve the issue after you contacted it. When I asked Lime about the incident, it said it was “very sorry” for the inconvenience caused to you and your family.
It said you called its customer services team at 12:37pm on October 25 to report that the vehicle was blocking your driveway and to ask for it to be removed.
It said its agent immediately organised for it to be collected, and it aims to pick up all reported vehicles within one hour of them being reported. At 1.13pm, while its team was on its way to collect the scooter, it could see a trip was being taken on the vehicle as another user had rented it, so it terminated the request to collect it.
Lime said that if it receives multiple complaints about a given area, it can explore adding a “no parking zone” in the area in order to prevent this from being possible in the future. So if this ever happens again, you should ask for this to be activated in your street.

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