When rented scooters malfunction and crash, who's responsible?

Irina Gornovskaya and her boyfriend, Adam Barrett, set out to have some holiday fun, renting electric scooters for a Memorial Day ride across the Stone Arch Bridge and through downtown Minneapolis' North Loop district.

The couple had taken the same ride several times before. But 10 minutes in, things went drastically wrong.

Gornovskaya's Spin scooter gave out, the vehicle abruptly stopped and she went tumbling onto the pavement on 1st Avenue N. Gornovskaya broke her right arm, damaged ligaments in her left and sustained deep lacerations and scrapes over the rest of her body.

"You trust the company will have them in proper care," she said in an interview two weeks after the crash. "You are not thinking about problems of them not being maintained or inspected."

Facing $28,000 in medical bills and unsure if they will be covered by insurance, Gornovskaya, 40, of Burnsville, has thought a lot about the incident. She wonders who, if anyone, can be held responsible when a rented scooter malfunctions, and if she has any recourse.

Gornovskaya reported her mishap to Spin, which refunded the $12.94 she paid for the ride and offered an apology. But beyond that, the San Francisco-based company absolved itself of responsibility and directed Gornovskaya to the user agreement she signed.

"Unfortunately, Spin is not able to cover the cost of these damages," part of an email the company sent to Gornovskaya read. "Our riders have agreed to accept responsibility for any damages caused or incurred while operating a Spin scooter. We sincerely apologize for the experience with us and promise to start the hard work of making sure this does not happen again. We'll investigate this expeditiously and will pull that vehicle from public use immediately."

Spin did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

The company's rider agreement — like that of most other scooter rental companies — requires users to acknowledge that scooter riding is an "inherently dangerous recreational activity." The agreement also has users agree to "indemnify, hold harmless, and forever release and discharge" the company and its subsidiaries from any and all injuries, demands, losses or damages.

Some companies, like Lime, carry corporate liability insurance, but experts say responsibility for damages is likely to fall on riders' shoulders because of the terms and conditions users agree to when they download the app.

The implications of those rider agreements are murky, said Chuck Slane, a partner at TSR Injury Law and president of the Minnesota Association for Justice. When riders sign them, they assume some degree of risk and could be giving up some rights in cases when minor negligence is involved, he said. But you can't sign away rights in cases where there is gross negligence, he added.

The difference between minor and gross negligence is "super vague," Slane said. "The court has not ruled on what that means."

That can make it tough to successfully take legal action, because the agreements generally stand up in court, said Bryant Greening, co-founder of Chicago-based LegalRideshare, which handles cases involving scooter injuries.

"There is a lot of risk for a rider," Greening said. "They are inherently dangerous. Every time you get on a device, you put your health and safety at risk, and potentially a lack of recourse."

There are ways to challenge rider agreements, Greening said, but to do so a rider would need to prove the scooter was defective in some way or provide proof the manufacturer was negligent. The scooter in question would need to be identified, pulled from service and inspected immediately, and "time is of the essence," Greening said.

All that legwork could lead an attorney to shy away from taking a case like Gornovskaya's, Slane said. It could come down to how badly a rider is injured, the ability to prove negligence and if the attorney could financially justify the case.

"Otherwise, probably not." he said.

Barrett shared Gornovskaya's case with Minneapolis City Council Member Michael Rainville, who said the lack of accountability is an issue the city may have to consider when awarding future contracts.

"It is not good policy to have the scooters not be responsible for a malfunction event," he wrote in an email to Barrett. "I will ask our staff to add that requirement to the license agreement."

Gornovskaya, a single mother, has been unsuccessful at finding an attorney to take her case. She said she isn't looking to sue for money, but wants someone to be held accountable.

"You can die on a scooter because they are not maintained," she said. "You take all the risk."