Riders thrown by random Lime scooter glitch

Lime has admitted a glitch is causing an unknown number of e-scooters in its New Zealand fleet to randomly brake midride, sending passengers flying.

It happened to Auckland’s Chris St Bruno, whose resulting ‘‘excruciating’’ injuries required three days in hospital and 10 weeks off work.

‘‘My accident alone has cost the country thousands of dollars. Hospital stay, ACC payments and now physiotherapy.’’

The glitch also happened to Stuff journalist John Anthony while he was travelling down a cycle way in the city at about 30kmh. Lime also operates in Hutt Valley, Christchurch, Dunedin and Queenstown.

He was not injured, but pointed out that the same fault had apparently affected hundreds, if not thousands, of Lime scooters overseas. Most notably, Switzerland’s fleet in the cities of Basel and Zurich.

Lime’s public relations team said it had recently become aware of the wheel-locking glitch affecting certain scooters in New Zealand. Spokeswoman Kate Cullen said the ‘‘operational issue’’ was under investigation.

‘‘The affected scooters have been removed from circulation.’’

She was not able to say how many malfunctioning scooters were taken out of circulation or how many Lime e-scooters were active in New Zealand.