Last reviewed: November 1, 2026
Electric scooters (“e-scooters”) have become a common way to get around Colorado cities. Denver and several other Colorado cities permit rental-scooter programs run by companies like Lime and Bird, offering a convenient, low-cost alternative to driving. But as these programs have grown, so have e-scooter accidents and injuries.
How Common Are E-Scooter Accidents in Colorado?
A study of patients at Denver Health found that the hospital treated 2,424 people for e-scooter-related injuries between January 2020 and November 2023, with annual cases rising from 273 in 2020 to more than 700 a year in 2021 and 2022 (Kahan et al., “Electric Scooter-related Injuries Are Becoming More Frequent and Costly in Denver, CO,” Clin Orthop Relat Res, 2025;483(2):318-326). Forty-five percent of those injuries happened between 7 p.m. and 3 a.m., and 44% happened on weekends. The causes largely mirror ordinary traffic crashes: other vehicles, road conditions, pedestrians, alcohol use, and other scooters sharing the roadway.
Can an E-Scooter Rental Company Be Held Liable for Your Accident?
Sometimes, but it depends heavily on how the accident happened and who was hurt. Under the Colorado Court of Appeals’ decision in Harrington v. Neutron Holdings, simply making scooters available to rent does not make the company responsible for a rider’s careless driving. But the court left the door open where the company did something more, or had reason to know a particular rider was likely to cause harm. And the analysis is different when the injured person is the rider and the scooter itself was defective.
What Did the Colorado Court of Appeals Decide in Harrington v. Neutron Holdings?
In Harrington v. Neutron Holdings, Inc., 2024 COA 120, a bicyclist in downtown Denver was severely injured by an allegedly intoxicated rider on a Lime scooter traveling the wrong way. The bicyclist sued Lime for negligence, arguing Lime failed to ensure users operated its scooters safely. The trial court dismissed the case, finding the bicyclist did not have a “special relationship” with Lime — the kind of relationship the law requires before imposing a duty to protect someone from a third party’s conduct. Colorado law recognizes only six such relationships (N.M. v. Trujillo, 2017 CO 79, ¶ 26), and the Court of Appeals declined to create a new one for e-scooters. As the court put it, “the mere act of making electric scooters available for public use, without more, does not impose a duty on the part of the rental company to the general public to ensure that users safely operate the scooters” (Harrington, ¶ 27). The court stressed that its holding was limited to those allegations and did not decide what duty a scooter company owes its own riders (¶ 34).
When Can Lime or Bird Be Liable for a Defective Scooter?
The analysis changes when the person hurt is the rider and the injury was caused by a problem with the scooter itself. No Colorado appellate court has yet decided the exact duty a scooter rental company owes its riders — Harrington expressly left that question open. But under general tort principles, a business that rents equipment for immediate use is expected to exercise reasonable care to inspect it and make it safe, or to warn of dangers it knows about. That makes maintenance records important: if a problem with the wheels, brakes, or motor should have been caught with reasonable inspection and it caused an injury, the rental company may be liable.
What Should You Do If You Were Injured in a Colorado E-Scooter Accident?
Every e-scooter accident turns on its own facts — who was riding, what caused the fall or collision, and whether a defect in the scooter played a role. Photograph the scooter and its ID number, the scene, and your injuries, and get medical care right away. If you’ve been hurt in a collision involving an e-scooter in Colorado, contact Mile High Legal so we can review what happened and who may be at fault. Nothing here is legal advice, and no attorney can promise a specific result.
Next step: If an e-scooter accident left you hurt in Colorado, contact Mile High Legal for a case review before you talk to the rental company’s insurer.
