‘I heard my spine and body split’: Pedestrian hospitalised for month with serious injuries after smash with child e-bike rider calls on London Mayor to clamp down on Lime bikes

A woman who fractured her spine after being hit by a child on a Lime bike has called on the mayor of London to crack down on the ‘Wild West’ e-bike industry.

Jane Ouartsi was walking in a pedestrian square in central London in August 2023 when she was bumped into by a young boy who appeared to be around ten years old.

She was left like a ‘broken porcelain doll’ with a broken collarbone, two spinal fractures and a broken femur.

Since then, Ms. Ouartsi has spent 36 days in hospital, undergone three surgeries and had to learn to walk again.

Police took statements from witnesses at that time but took no further action. Ms Ouartsi said no compensation had been offered by Lime, which has around 40,000 bikes in London.

‘If an old person had my injuries, he would not have survived,’ he said. ‘I heard that my spine and body had split open… I was just a broken porcelain doll.’

Recalling the incident, he told BBC London: ‘We had a wonderful lunch, watched a light display and a minute later, [there was] Effect. “Oh my God, what happened to me?” I thought.

He was ‘scared’ of stepping on the pavement after the accident. “I still am,” he added. ‘It’s like the Wild West with lime bikes. ‘They’re still making zoomies… how do underage kids get them?’

Ms Ouartsi called on London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan to impose restrictions on dockless E-bikes using the British Takeovers Act, which recently received royal assent.

This could create stricter parking and licensing rules that would replace the different regulations that exist in different boroughs across the capital.

Sir Sadiq has previously said the industry is like the ‘Wild West and we desperately need regulation’. He added that the draft law showed ‘lobbying’. [the Government] It paid off’.

Ms Ouartsi’s partner, Dave Mathias, said new legislation could not come quickly enough.

‘If you drive any other motor vehicle you must have a licence, and you cannot drive them on the pavement. “The situation should be no different for Lime bikes,” he said.

‘[The rider] They were going as fast as they could. When I turned around, Jane was falling to the ground in slow motion. It was a real shock. He was screaming.

‘I know they have the technology to slow these Lime bikes down in certain areas, so why not this and not this?’

Lime is one of many dockless rental E-bike operators that pay municipalities to operate in their areas.

Drivers pay per minute to use the bikes, and Lime says it provides free third-party liability insurance to users, but Ms. Ouartsi has not received any compensation.

A company spokesman said: ‘Our thoughts are with Jane and her family and we are sorry for the distress this incident has caused. We take incidents like this extremely seriously. This situation was carefully reviewed and handled in accordance with our policies.

‘Safety informs everything we do at Lime, from how we design and maintain our vehicles to our driver training and how we work with cities.’

The rise of e-bikes has been controversial, with concerns about careless parking and dangerous driving.

Last year, trauma surgeons reportedly even coined the term ‘Lime bike leg’ after seeing a number of serious lower leg injuries in patients crushed under the weight of heavy e-bikes that tip over.

Ms. Ouartsi is not the first victim to attract attention. Sandy Peters, a single mother in her 50s, was walking to her son’s 21st birthday celebrations in Carshalton, Sutton, when she was hit by a teenager on a Forest bike last October.

He went flying and crashed into a brick wall, suffering from a broken nose, upper jaw, cheekbones, and a misaligned lower jaw.

So much blood was gushing from his nose and mouth that his son was afraid he would die.

He faces thousands of pounds in dental bills and cannot claim any compensation for the accident because Forest has no third-party insurance.