29/01/2026
Friday 4th of August 2023 I left work early to meet my wife of over thirty years in Central London.
We made our way to Dean Street Soho, enjoyed a fantastic meal while talking, laughing and generally enjoying quality time together.
Afterwards we decided to take a look at the digital art installation on Tottenham Court Road opposite Centrepoint, so took a slow walk through Soho Square.
We stood enjoying the fabulous digital imagery then decided to take the bus back home.
This was approximately 5pm.
We were walking slowly arm in arm reaching a third of the way across St Giles Square when an electric lime bike came out of nowhere.
It was travelling fast in a pedestrianised area and heading straight for us, it happened very quickly.
The bike was not clicking (a sign of it being broken for a free ride) so had been hired by someone.
It was right upon us, giving no time to react before the bike ran into my wife, hitting her hard.
The impact caused the momentum of the rider, (a young boy) to hit me in the chest.
He was still in my arms as I turned to see if my wife was ok, she was falling to the ground, the horror of which made it seem like slow motion.
I immediately let go of the boy and rushed to her aid.
She was on the pavement crying in severe pain screaming "I think my leg or hip is broken".
Some passers by stopped to help, one being a doctor another an anesthetist whom had both just finished work.
Someone called an ambulance, thankfully it came quickly, I would guess after 20 minutes.
I called the 999 emergency number and was put through to the police where I attempted to tell them through my shock what had happened.
The police officer on the line asked me to describe the boy, I said he is still at the scene, I will try to get a photograph of him.
I launched the camera on my mobile phone and approached the boy who was by now accompanied by who I assume to be his mother, who was nowhere to be seen previously.
She said you are not taking any photographs of the boy, he is ten years old!
I persisted but she was shielding him, then ushered him away.
I went back to my partner, instead taking photographs of the scene to try documenting it in some way.
The Director of Security for St Giles Square approached me saying that the incident had been caught on CCTV and the footage will be submitted to police along with the QR/ID code of the bike.
A paramedic arrived, then shortly afterwards the ambulance.
After tending to my wife the best they could on the pavement they assembled a stretcher, transferring her to a trolley and then into the ambulance all to her screams of pain.
Due to the shock and adrenaline the paramedics couldn't find a vein to insert a cannula.
They administered morphine orally which took longer to work, together with gas and air.
Her leg was then straightened and put into a splint to louder screams of pain.
Two different police officers entered the ambulance at separate times to write down my account of what happened.
We were then taken to UCL Hospital A&E in Euston Road.
Examinations were conducted to further screams of pain, then a CT scan was performed.
The scan found that in addition to her broken femur there were further injuries which included a fractured collar bone and two spinal fractures.
In the hospital ward my wife was in traction and severe pain for four days while awaiting an MRI scan to determine the extent of the spinal fractures before any surgery could commence.
She was finally cleared to undergo surgery on the morning of 8th of August 2023.
Thanks to the wonderful and very caring team at UCLH Euston Road my wife was made comfortable, reassuring her that one day she will be able to walk again.
During the first operation she had titanium rods and screws inserted into her leg and hip, responding well to treatment, although was unable to walk.
When out of bed, for physio for example, she had to wear a spinal brace to prevent spinal collapse.
This was the case for three months.
Her fractured collar bone caused minimal discomfort thankfully.
The psychological damage incurred by this incident is immeasurable, she had been very distressed at the thought of never being able to walk again.
At physio sessions she was afraid, even with the aid of physiotherapists, to try to stand for fear of falling
Her transfer to rehabilitation was cancelled pending an ultrasound scan for diagnosis of a hematoma or at worse deep vein thrombosis, the results showed that it was probably hematoma as no deep vein thrombosis was present.
My wife was now expected to be transferred to rehabilitation only to be tested positive with Covid and was isolated in a room at UCLH.
During the first week of my wife's hospitalisation I received a phone call from Sophie Ripley of the Metropolitan Police Road Traffic Collision investigation team.
She informed me that her superior says there is no case and nothing further they can do.
I did point out that my wife has suffered life changing injuries, both physically, emotionally and psychologically, adding that we understand that a 10 year old child cannot be held responsible for this incident but believe that someone should be accountable.
Be it whomever paid for him to attempt riding the bike, the Lime company, Transport for London or The Department of Transport for allowing Lime the license to operate unregulated on our streets.
I also pointed out that the incident occurred in a pedestrianised area, asking why were the road traffic collision team given the case as this did not happen on a road but a pedestrianised area.
I asked the police to send the footage to me but denied my request stating data protection laws.
Tuesday of 22nd of August I emailed [email protected] requesting the CCTV footage.
This was received with thanks on 9th of October although every person in the footage has their faces blurred out except for my wife and I.
After another appeal to her superior [email protected] contacted me by telephone to inform me that there is nothing they can do and suggested my launching a civil case.
On telling her that I don't have the money for that kind of thing she suggested finding a no win no fee lawyer.
The police dropped the case within a week saying that Lime have no record of the bike being in that area.
On the Friday evening of the incident there was no police presence whatsoever in one of the busiest areas of the city until my partner was in the ambulance.
Also no incident board was placed in St Giles Square appealing for witnesses at any time.
Wednesday 30th August at approximately 3.15 pm my wife returned home.
I had brought a bed into the living room to make things easier for her, also fixed a handles to walls to make it easier for her to reach the lavatory.
She was on a variety of medication and thankfully not in the kind of pain as previously suffered although her mobility very limited.
She had lost much weight, her hair was falling out in clumps.
Psychologically she was and still is regularly reliving the incident by day and nightmares by night.
I made sure her medication was taken on time, this included preparing and administrating Oxynorm, a fast acting opioid for the relief of severe pain.
I also administered a daily injection of Arovi to the stomach which prevents blood clots
The above account of the incident which my wife suffered on August 4th 2023 resulted in a split femur, fractured collar bone and two spinal fractures.
She had to undergo three operations requiring a total of 36 days in hospital and is still unable to walk unaided.
I have CCTV footage of this incident together with the ID/QR code of the vehicle.
Doctors reports with copies of X-ray images and CD discs containing MRI scans which show the full extent of her injuries.
Also my own photographs and videos documenting this traumatic affair.
I have been emailing Lime for two and a half years, at one point they said a financial gesture may be considered so long as I accept they are not liable for what happened.
Which in itself suggests there is some level of liability.
Their last email maintains they have no record of the bike being ridden, no name of hirer or rider is present therefore nothing can be done to help.
Electric Lime bikes are run using GPS and hired through a mobile phone via an app, which is in turn linked to a credit card owned by the hirer, therefore a name and address shouldn't be too difficult to obtain.
Despite this Lime maintain that they have no record of it being ridden, even though I have CCTV footage of it being ridden and even the QR code of the bike.
Lime are not forthcoming with the data which would enable us to claim on their insurance the compensation that would help rebuild our lives.
After visiting the Lime e-bike website I learned that the legal age limit to ride one of these bikes is 18 years old, which begs the question why is a ten year old child riding one at speed in a pedestrianised area.
Also a credit card is needed to link to the Lime bike app in order to mobilise one, something a ten year old child would not possess.
On the website Lime stress that saftey comes first with online tutorials while in the next section boasting of bike upgrades that enable them to accelerate faster.
I believe company receipts have to be kept for a minimum of 7 years by law so the identity of the hirer is in Lime’s system somewhere.
I have spent the two and a half years since this nightmare started trying to obtain some form of justice for my wife but to no avail.
In the hope of finding any kind of justice for my wife I am trying to highlight this through social media and have recently created this page.
This is happening to innocent people every day.
Lime seem to be policing themselves and are accountable to no one.
