'I heard my spine and body split': Pedestrian hospitalised for month with serious injuries after smash with child e-bike rider calls on London Mayor to clamp down on Lime bikes

By KRISTINA WEMYSS, GENERAL NEWS REPORTER Published: 13:00, 30 June 2026 | Updated: 13:00, 30 June 2026 A woman who suffered spinal fractures after a child crashed into her on a Lime bike has called on the mayor of London to clamp down on the ‘Wild West’ E-bike industry. Jane Ouartsi was walking through a pedestrianised square in central London in August 2023 when she was hit by a young boy, understood to be around ten years old. She was left like ‘a broken china doll’, with a fractured collarbone, two spinal fractures and a broken femur. Since then, Ms Ouartsi has spent 36 days in hospital, had three operations and been forced to learn to walk again. Police took statements from witnesses at the time but pursued no further action. Ms Ouartsi said no compensation has been offered by Lime, which has around 40,000 bikes in London. ‘If an elderly person had got my injuries, they wouldn’t have survived,’ she said. ‘I heard my spine and my body split… I was just a broken china doll.’ Recalling the incident, she told BBC London: ‘We’d had a lovely lunch and seen a light exhibition and next minute, [there was] the impact. I thought, “Oh my God what’s gone into me?” After the crash, she was ‘terrified’ of going on the pavement. ‘I still am,’ she added. ‘It’s like the Wild West with the Lime bikes. They’re still zooming… how are under-age kids getting them?’ Ms Ouartsi has called for the mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan to clamp down on dockless E-bikes using the English Devolution Bill, which recently received royal assent. Riders pay to use the bikes by the minute, and Lime says it provides users with free third-party liability insurance, though Ms Ouartsi has not received any compensation This could create a tighter set of parking and licensing rules across the capital to replace the different regulations that exist across individual boroughs. Sir Sadiq previously said the sector was ‘like the Wild West’ and that ‘we desperately need regulation’. The Bill, he added, shows that ‘lobbying [the Government] has paid off’. Ms Ouartsi’s partner Dave Mathias said new legislation could not come quickly enough. ‘If you ride any other motorised vehicle, you have to have a licence and cannot ride them on the pavement. It should be no different for Lime bikes,’ he said. ‘[The rider] was going as fast as they can go. I turned round and Jane was falling to the ground in slow motion. It was a real shock. She was screaming. ‘I know they have the technology to slow down these Lime bikes in certain areas so why not do that so this doesn't happen?’ Lime is one of a number of dockless hire E-bike operators, which pay councils to operate in their borough. Riders pay to use the bikes by the minute, and Lime says it provides users with free third-party liability insurance, though Ms Ouartsi has not received any compensation. A spokesman for the company said: ‘Our thoughts are with Jane and her family, and we are sorry for the distress this incident has caused. We take incidents like this extremely seriously. This situation has been carefully reviewed and handled in line with our policies. ‘Safety informs everything we do at Lime — from how we design and maintain our vehicles, to our rider education, and how we work with cities.’ The rise of E-bikes has been controversial, with concerns over inconsiderate parking and dangerous riding. Last year, it was reported that trauma surgeons had even coined the term ‘Lime bike leg’ as they were seeing so many severe lower-leg injuries in patients who were crushed under the weight of heavy electric bikes that had tipped over. Ms Ouartsi is not the first victim to have gained attention. Sandy Peters - a single mother in her 50s - was walking to her son’s 21st birthday celebrations in Carshalton, Sutton, when a teenager riding a Forest bike smashed into her last October. She was sent flying into a brick wall – suffering a broken nose, upper jaw, cheek bones, and a misaligned lower jaw. There was so much blood gushing from her nose and mouth her son feared she would die. She faces thousands of pounds in dental bills and is unable to claim any compensation for the accident as Forest does not have any third-party insurance policy. The comments below have not been moderated. 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