Lime scooters deadline looms: Will they be banned from Auckland streets?

A deadline is looming for Lime to prove its controversial e-scooters are safe - with less than three hours until they could be banned from Auckland's streets.

The company was given until noon today to provide information on safety issues following a spate of incidents in which the front wheel locked.

One man suffered a broken jaw, and others were also injured when the front wheel of the Lime e-scooter they were riding locked.

Auckland Council and Auckland Transport yesterday imposed a deadline on Lime, after attempting to seek assurances from the company about the safety of its scooters.

"Auckland Council has formally written to Lime twice this week to request urgent updates, for us to be able to decide on any next steps from a licensing perspective," council chief operating officer Dean Kimpton said in the joint statement yesterday.

"We have also asked Lime to provide information on the number of scooters affected, the technical issue leading to failure, its proposed solution including how it will manage pulling affected scooters off the streets, and assurance there will be no further malfunctions."

The two bodies gave Lime until noon today to respond to their concerns, with AT chairman Lester Levy saying, if it failed to meet the deadline, management would take appropriate action.

"If this was an aircraft with a problem it would be grounded," he said

High expectations had been set for scooter safety for Lime's customers and other road users as part of Lime's licence extension, Kimpton said.

The council would not confirm this morning whether Lime has responded to its request yet, saying an update will be provided once the deadline has passed.

It comes as a number of people have been injured while riding a Lime scooter, including Auckland man Liam Thompson. The 27-year-old suffered a broken jaw, and cuts and grazes all over his body when the front wheel of the Lime he was riding on Friday night locked and he flew over the handlebars.

Lime has previously stressed that "safety is our first priority", and affected scooters had been removed from circulation. An investigation was also underway.

"In the meantime, we are in the process of rolling out early detection and additional preventative measures for our global fleet," a spokesperson said.

Last month, Lime temporarily removed all of its 550 scooters from the streets of Zurich and Basel in Switzerland following a number of incidents in which the front brakes of the scooters were allegedly automatically activated when they reached their full speed of 24km/h.