Segway Lawsuit Filed After Recall of 220K E-Scooters Due to Fall Hazard

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Segway faces a proposed class action lawsuit days after it recalled roughly 220,000 Ninebot Max G30P and Max G30LP KickScooters due to concerns that the products’ folding mechanism could fail during use, posing a fall hazard.

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The 19-page class action suit was filed by a Boston resident who says he was driving his Segway Ninebot Max G30P when the stem suddenly folded and collapsed, causing him to fall and dislocate his shoulder, tear his rotator cuff and fracture his shoulder.

According to the complaint, “[s]cores of consumers have been injured” due to the Segway folding mechanism defect as it effectively causes the scooters to “collapse on themselves” while a rider is going approximately 20 miles per hour, “launching customers into traffic and the pavement.”

Although Segway riders nationwide have “routinely ended up in emergency rooms,” the company “refuses to refund its customers a single cent,” the lawsuit says.

The Segway Ninebot Max G30P and Max G30LP recall was announced on March 20 by the defendant and the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), which warned consumers to immediately stop using the recalled scooters. In the recall announcement, the CPSC stated that Segway had received 68 reports of folding mechanism failures, including 20 injuries involving abrasions, bruises, lacerations and broken bones.

  

Rather than refund customers, the case claims, Segway has “implemented a deficient recall,” presumably to be able to “say they are doing the right thing” while, in truth, seeking to “protect their bottom line.”

“Any requests for refunds, returns, or replacements are denied,” the filing says.

Per the case, the only option for Segway customers is to contact the company to receive a maintenance kit and then “follow complex and confusing instructions to purportedly fix the issue.” Customers must then routinely monitor the e-scooters to ensure that they “do not snap or collapse on any given day,” the complaint says.

“Consumers did not bargain for an expensive e-scooter that could collapse, causing users to be flung from the e-scooter at full speed without notice unless they personally performed routine maintenance that they are not competent to perform and that is unlikely to fix the defect,” the class action lawsuit contests.

According to the case, the response rate for the Segway e-scooter recall has been low given the initiative received “very little publication.” The suit argues that consumers who have “lost faith” in the scooters and those who have discarded or damaged their scooters beyond repair are left with no recourse.

The plaintiff says he left his e-scooter at the scene of the crash when he went to the emergency room given it was no longer operable and he was unable to move it. When he returned, the scooter was no longer there, the suit says.

The Segway Ninebot Max G30P and Max G30LP Kickscooters retail for between $600 and $1,000, the case relays. The serial numbers of models impacted by the recall begin with N4GN or N4GS and can be found on the side of the e-scooter’s foot deck, though the lawsuit alleges that “substantially identical e-scooters” sold by Segway are similarly defective.

The Segway lawsuit looks to cover all consumers in the United States who bought one of the recalled e-scooters.

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