Guwahati: Electric scooter manufacturer Ola Electric has denied that an accident involving its flagship electric scooter in Guwahati last month had anything to do with defective brakes.
In a statement, the ride-hailing major on Friday that its investigation showed the rider was over speeding.
@bhash @OlaElectric I had purchased new Ola S1 Pro. On 26th March 2022 my son had an accident due to fault in regenerative breaking where on speed breaker instead of slowing, the scooter accelerated sending so much torque that he had an accident (1/n) pic.twitter.com/ghVXSwqJ3T
— BALWANT SINGH (@BALWANT1962) April 15, 2022
On 26 March, the rider of the newly-purchased Ola S1 Pro met with an accident in Guwahati.
His father and owner of the vehicle, Balwant Singh, in a tweet on April 15 blamed a “fault in (the) regenerative braking” in the two-wheeler.
Singh alleged that his son had met with an accident “due to fault in regenerative breaking where on a speed breaker instead of slowing, the scooter accelerated, sending so much torque that he had an accident”.
Singh shared pictures of his injured son, saying he had fractures in his left hand and 16 stitches in his right. His son had to be flown to Mumbai for surgery “to save his left hand from lifelong disability”, the father said.
Ola said it did a thorough investigation of the accident and the “data clearly shows that the rider was overspeeding throughout the night and that he braked in panic, thereby losing control of the vehicle. There was nothing wrong with the vehicle”.
The accident happened on March 26 when Singh’s son was driving an Ola S1 Pro.
“The scooter went airborne before crashing and skidding. My son was hospitalised on March 26 and had a fracture in left hand and 16 stitches in his right hand due to fault in Ola S1 Pro,” tweeted Singh.
Ola said that the scooter’s speed on the night of the accident was between 95 kmph and 115 kmph.
At the time of the accident, three brakes were applied together – front, rear and regenerative – bringing the speed from 80 kmph to 0 kmph in 3 seconds.
“Road safety is of paramount importance to us. We strongly recommend everyone to ride responsibly, adhere to speed limits and ensure your’re wearing a helmet,” Ola said
