Photo: STUFF / Christel Yardley
Lois Lawrence was collected by an e-scooter as she stepped off a bus, leaving her "blacked out" with a fractured hand and foot.
The 71-year-old pensioner looked as if she had been bashed, her daughter said.
ACC paid out more than $8 million for e-scooter-related injuries around New Zealand in 2022 - and Lawrence now wants them banned.
She was injured in Hamilton about midday on 31 January, when an e-scooter rider hit her as she got off the rear exit of a bus at Kahikatea Drive in Melville.
After more than a month of clinics, numerous ACC enquiries, and with $1400 in medical and miscellaneous bills due to the crash, Lawrence is calling for a total ban of e-scooters.
"Even when I was walking on Wednesday morning, one zoomed past me. It is really dangerous."
She said she "blacked out" after being hit in January.
Photo: STUFF / Christel Yardley
The scooter rider called an ambulance and stayed until it arrived. Lawrence was grateful to those who helped, including a doctor on a motorbike who did an initial check.
"I was bleeding a lot."
"I wish I had stayed in Chartwell for another half an hour or stepped out of the bus a bit later."
With rising living costs, Lawrence had been looking for a gardening or house cleaning job to supplement her pension.
"That's out the window now" given the fractures in her right hand and foot.
"The doctor at the clinic said I might not be able to fully raise my arm ... but hopefully with physiotherapy it gets better."
Some medical costs were subsidised by ACC but Lawrenson, who does not drive, took a loan from Work and Income to cover costs such as replacing her broken glasses, and was repaying it fortnightly.
E-scooter injuries have cost the country nearly $26m in four years, with ACC paying out $25,974,266 - GST exclusive - from October 2018 to December 2022.
More than $8m of that was paid out in 2022.
There were 2573 claims in 2022, 2139 in 2021, 1795 in 2020, 3181 in 2019 and 622 in the last three months of 2018.
Hamilton City Council could not say before publication how many e-scooter complaints had been received.
The City Safe team monitors their use in the city.
Operators set their rules, including a minimum age and any complaints the council gets are passed on to the company to manage, City Safe operations manager Paul Blewman said.
A total of 600 Lime e-scooters were introduced in Hamilton in 2019 for a six-month trial month and in May 2021, the council's infrastructure operations committee gave the thumbs up to "personal hire devices" being allowed to operate indefinitely in the city - opening up the previously exclusive arrangement with Lime Scooters.
Hamilton mayor Paula Southgate said while the council understood the risks of micromobility devices - e-scooters, e-bikes, skateboards, etc - it recognised they were a useful way for some people to get where they need to go.
The council promoted safety guidelines such as wearing helmets, using hand signals, and giving way to pedestrians to minimise any risk to the public.
Scooters can travel anywhere on footpaths, river pathways, and in parks at up to 15 kilometres per hour within Hamilton City Council guidelines.
"I would encourage people to be responsible. Please - take care, always give way, and just ride in a way that is courteous of others; we don't want people putting themselves and others in danger - no matter how they choose to travel."
This story was originally published on Stuff.