UPDATE: Lime recall doesn’t affect its Tacoma scooter fleet
It’s another week of troubling safety headlines for Lime e-scooters, this time over a recall dealing with scooter baseboards.
Its Okai manufactured scooters, which the company warned earlier might break apart after repeated abuse, now are being examined for coming apart during regular use.
Lime has decided to take the Okai-made scooters out of circulation globally. The Washington Post first reported the recall Nov. 10. The company said it has no models under recall in Tacoma.
Lime, in a statement sent to The News Tribune on Tuesday morning, said: “We are actively looking into reports that scooters manufactured by Okai may break and are working cooperatively with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and the relevant agencies internationally to get to the bottom of this.
“Safety is Lime’s highest priority and as a precaution we are immediately decommissioning all Okai scooters in the global fleet. The vast majority of Lime’s fleet is manufactured by other companies.”
Lime said it was replacing the Okai scooters with newer units, the Lime-S. The company said it did not anticipate any noticeable service disruptions.
UPDATE: A spokeswoman for the City of Tacoma told The News Tribune on Tuesday afternoon that according to Lime, there are no scooters subject to recall operating in Tacoma.
Earlier this year, Lime recalled units elsewhere for potential battery fires.
In Tacoma, Lime’s fleet of 250 scooters and 100 e-bikes have provided approximately 50,000 rides to date, according to the company, with “20 to 25 percent of rides starting or ending at transit centers such as Sounder Stations or the 56th Street Transit Center.”
The company requested a permit extension on its trial period in Tacoma, which started Sept. 21, for the trial to last a total of 120 days. The initial permit was for 60 days.
There’s also a new helmet push by Lime. The company asks riders to go online and sign its “Respect the Ride” pledge, “committing to safe riding practices, including abiding by local traffic laws and parking properly.” From this, Lime expects to distribute 225,000 free helmets in the mail.
As reported previously, Tacoma’s helmet law applies to Lime riders, too.
This story was originally published November 13, 2018 at 12:41 PM.
