E-scooter and e-bike accident claims
Shared scooters arrived faster than the rules did. The result is a category of injury where fault can sit with a driver, a city, a property owner, or the scooter itself — and where the rental agreement you tapped through is doing more work than you realize.
Who can be responsible
- A driver who turned across you or opened a door. The most common scenario, and the most straightforward.
- The scooter operator, where the vehicle itself failed — brakes that did not engage, a stem that snapped, a throttle that stuck, a wheel that locked. Fleet maintenance on shared scooters is a genuine issue and a mechanical failure is a product and maintenance claim rather than a driver claim.
- A property owner or public entity, where the surface was the cause: an unmarked trench, a gap at a construction plate, a pothole. Public entity claims carry the six-month deadline.
- Another rider or a pedestrian, in collisions on crowded paths.
The rental agreement
Every shared scooter app presents terms containing a liability waiver, an assumption-of-risk clause and, in most cases, an arbitration clause with a class-action waiver. People accept them in about two seconds, standing on a sidewalk.
These clauses are not automatically unanswerable. California will not enforce a contractual release of liability for gross negligence as a matter of public policy, and a waiver's reach is a question of how it is drafted and how it was presented. Arbitration clauses are generally enforceable but have their own law about unconscionability.
The practical point: a waiver you signed is a reason to have someone read it, not a reason to assume you have no claim. And a waiver with the scooter company does nothing at all about the driver who hit you.
The rules for riders
E-bikes are classified separately, and the class matters. Class 1 is pedal-assist to 20 mph, class 2 adds a throttle to 20 mph, class 3 is pedal-assist to 28 mph. Class 3 carries extra rules — riders must be at least 16 and must wear a helmet regardless of age (Veh. Code § 21213), and class 3 bikes are excluded from some paths.
Breaking one of these rules does not end a claim. It is comparative fault, argued as a percentage. Being on the sidewalk when a car reversed out of a driveway without looking is a shared-fault case, not a lost one.
Questions people ask
I agreed to the scooter app's terms. Have I waived everything?
No. A waiver cannot release liability for gross negligence in California as a matter of public policy, its scope depends on how it is written, and it binds you only as against the scooter company — not against the driver who hit you or the owner of the property where you fell. It is worth having read properly rather than assumed.
The scooter's brakes failed. Who is responsible?
Potentially the operator that maintains the fleet, and potentially the manufacturer, depending on whether the failure came from maintenance or design. Both routes depend on identifying the exact scooter, which is why the vehicle number and your in-app ride record matter so much.
I was riding on the sidewalk. Does that end my claim?
No. California prohibits riding a motorised scooter on a sidewalk except to enter or leave adjacent property, so it may be argued as comparative fault. Your recovery would be reduced by your share rather than eliminated, and a driver who failed to look still failed to look.
Related
Reviewed October 2026 by Simon Aziz Budhwani, Esq., the attorney responsible for this site. Legal statements here name the California code section they rely on, so you can check them rather than trust them. This is information about the law in general, not advice about your situation.
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