Lawsuit: Mom sues defunct scooter rental company
2 children were injured in crash
BRIDGEPORT — For more than two years bright-orange electric scooters were a fixture in the city.
But a lawsuit filed earlier this week claims the company that provided the scooters, Bethel based Lynx City, didn’t take safety into consideration when making the scooters available to all members of the public.
In the lawsuit, filed in Superior Court, Laura Bemiah of Bridgeport, claims her children, Nataniel Codjoe, 13, and 4-yearold Jadaelise Asare, were severely injured because the scooter renting company didn’t ensure that the scooters were not available to children.
“Lynx knew or should have known that allowing children to gain access to operate electric scooters would involve an unreasonable risk of death or serious bodily harm to said children,” the suit states.
The suit seeks unspecified damages.
Bemiah’s lawyer, Bert McDowell, would not immediately comment on the lawsuit.
Phone numbers listed for Lynx City were no longer in service and records in the Secretary of the State’s Office show the company, established in May 2019, has been dissolved. The company’s website is no longer online and its X (formerly Twitter)
page has not been updated since 2021.
McDowell said he is aware the company is now out of business but declined to comment on that.
The scooters have now vanished from the city’s streets.
Asked about the disappearance of the scooters, mayoral spokesperson Tiadora Josef, stated in an email, “We will not be committing on this matter.”
According to the lawsuit, on June 17, 2022, at about 4:13 p.m., Codjoe was operating the scooter with his sister standing on the scooter in front of him at the intersection of Housatonic Avenue and East Washington Avenue when they were struck by a car.
Codjoe suffered a traumatic brain injury and broken bones in his face, lost his right eye and had wounds all over his body as a result of the crash, the suit states. His sister also suffered a traumatic brain injury and a fractured skull, fractured cervical spine and fractures and wounds all over her body.
The lawsuit continues that the children’s mother has been forced, as a result of their injures, to expend large sums of money and will continue to do so as her children have to undergo medical treatment related to the crash in the future.
In addition, the suit states that the injures have resulted in both children being permanently disabled.
The suit states that Lynx City did nothing to supervise the use of the scooters to ensure they were not being used by children and took no action to make sure riders were properly protected while riding the scooters.
The introduction of the scooters in Bridgeport was done to great fanfare in 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lynx provided a fleet of 125 of the scooters circulated all over the city.
Mayor Joseph Ganim called the scooters “a game changer for our growing population of young people.”
“Many people are nervous about using ride share, public transportation or taxi services during the recent pandemic,” Lynx CEO Alan Moisio said in a statement at the time. “Riding a Lynx ... scooter in the open air eliminates that close contact with others while traveling to your destination.”
In a press release the city said the scooters could be searched and unlocked using Lynx’s mobile phone application. They cost $1 to start the ride, and an additional $.35 per minute, with a 30mile range if fully charged, according to the release.
The company stated riders must be at least 18 years old, wear helmets, obey signs and traffic laws, and give pedestrians right-of-way. Riders also were reminded to never ride under the influence of alcohol or drugs.