Adelaide Uni lecturer Julia Miller struck by Lime e-scooter

The lawyer for an Adelaide woman seriously injured by an e-scooter says she won’t be the last to find herself in an impossible position.

An Adelaide University lecturer is exploring legal options after she was hit and severely injured by an e-scooter rider in Melbourne.

Dr Julia Miller was in Melbourne to visit her son when she was struck from behind by a Lime scooter rider on a shared path at the base of the William Barak Bridge, near the MCG, on April 1 about 3.30pm.

Dr Miller, a senior education lecturer, told The Advertiser she suffered a broken right shoulder and right elbow.

She sprained her left ankle and had a haematoma in her right ankle that developed necrosis.

“For a long time after my shoulder didn’t heal so I was on really strong painkillers for two months,” she said.

Dr Miller initially spent 12 days in hospital in Melbourne, having a shoulder operation and plates inserted into her elbow and upper arm.

Adelaide University lecturer Dr Julia Miller. Picture: 7 NEWS

But ongoing problems meant that, once back in Adelaide, she needed a shoulder replacement in June.

“I’ve had to take five months off work,” she said.

She has incurred $22,000 in medical bills so far, most of which her health insurance won’t pay for as it does not cover the “very expensive” joint replacement.

Her lawyer Nick Mann, of Polaris Lawyers, said options were being explored.

Mr Mann said taking legal action against e-scooter companies was difficult because councils had been “sucked in” to allowing them to operate with essentially “junk” insurance policies.

He said the companies tried to heavily limit their liability so, for example, if a rider wasn’t wearing a helmet – as in Dr Miller’s incident – the scooter business could wash its hands of it.

Mr Mann said when e-scooter companies first set up in Australia, they had claimed riders were at fault even in cases of mechanical faults in scooters they hired causing accidents.

He added that other countries were much stricter in their laws, demanding operators have two separate insurance policies – one covering riders and one for injured third parties.

A Lime e-scooter.

“You would have been better being hit by a scooter in Croatia than in Australia,” he said.

But Mr Mann said there was some hope as “the companies don’t get to write their own laws on their own liability,” meaning a judge may rule they have to look after someone like Dr Miller.

“We may still be able to make a claim against Lime (but if not) the claim would be against the rider themselves and their assets and their home and contents insurance,” he said.

“Julia is not the first person in this situation and she won’t be the last.”

Mr Mann said it would be likely not be possible to sue a council over its agreement with an e-scooter provider as government agencies enjoyed special legal protections.

Despite her experience, Dr Miller said she favoured Melbourne’s scooter rules under which they are supposed to be ridden on the road, whereas in Adelaide they are allowed on footpaths which she said was “very dangerous”.

“So many people have had near misses,” she said.
The Advertiser has approached Lime for comment.