An American woman is on the road to recovery after she was hit by a truck while riding a Lime e-scooter in Dunedin.
Renee Whitehouse with her mum Jackie less than a month after she was hit by a truck while riding a Lime e-scooter in Dunedin. Photo: RNZ / Tess Brunton
Masters student Renée Whitehouse said riders needed to be wearing helmets to stay safe.
It was nearly 2am on January 18. Ms Whitehouse had been busy working behind a bar in Dunedin's Octagon - she was tired and sober, and hopped on an Lime e-scooter to go to the supermarket, then head home.
"And oddly I remember, like, being at home, going to sleep.
"But I think that's my brain playing tricks on me cos the next thing I remember was two nurses being over me, telling me I was in the ICU and that I was hit by a truck, and having me my arms back and forth to see if they still moved," Ms Whitehouse said
It was less than a month ago.
If e-scooter helmets were compulsory, Renée Whitehouse says it would have saved her a lot of grief. Photo: PHOTO / RNZ Colin Peacock
She remembered lying in intensive care, covered in tubes, hooked up to a machine to help her breathe.
But she was back to working on her archaeology masters at the University of Otago from her hospital bed and dancing using a ballet barre at the Dunedin Hospital.
"I just want to get back to as normal life as possible until they put the skull flap back in and that will be in three months, hopefully in April.
"Then recovery time, and then I'll really get back to normal and do everything that I was doing before," she said.
The skull flap she referred to was the part of her skull that was removed - it's roughly the size of her hand.
If helmets were compulsory, Ms Whitehouse said it would have saved her a lot of grief.
There were common sense rules to riding a Lime e-scooter that needed to be obeyed - like riding in the bike lane and ringing the bell when travelling in pedestrian-heavy areas, she said.
"It's like riding a bike. It's kind of fun, except it's a motorised vehicle and ... you need a helmet and you need to follow the rules.
"If you don't follow the rules then stuff needs to happen to change that.
"They really should be off the streets by, like, dark because, especially with all the drunk students that are coming back, it's going to be really dangerous."
The scene of the crash between a Lime e-scooter and a truck in Dunedin. Photo: Otago Daily Times /Stephen Jaquiery
The support from her friends and family and particularly her parents - who travelled over to be in Dunedin as she recovered - was overwhelming, Ms Whitehouse said.
She hoped people would learn from her crash and become more aware of their surroundings and wear a helmet.
"More aware of what their bodies can take and what they should be doing to take care of themselves and others.
"If you're going to ride the scooters everywhere, make sure that the people around you are ok, that you don't almost hit people, you don't scare them."
Ms Whitehouse hoped to be back home before next week.
