This is the sickening moment a ten-year-old boy speeding on a Lime Bike smashes into a grandmother, leaving her with a life changing injuries.

Jane Quartsi was walking across St Giles Square in central London with her partner Dave Mathias when a young cyclist crashed into her – and then fled the scene moments later.

Ms Quartsi suffered a broken femur, a fractured collar bone and two spinal fractures requiring three operations and has been battling other crippling health complications since the incident in August 2023.

In total, she has spent 36 days in hospital and has also been diagnosed with PTSD claiming that her and her partner’s lives ‘will never be the same’ as they battle to get justice.

Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, she said: ‘Both of us are going through hell, our lives have been ruined by this. I’m still struggling with all kinds of health problems and am barely able to speak about what happened.

‘I’m too scared to go out now because every time I see a bike I think it’s going to run me over. All we want is justice and for the person who did this to be held accountable. But nobody is helping us.’

Mr Mathias, 63 has been caring for Ms Quartsi since the accident. The couple have been together for 35 years and she has one daughter and two grandchildren from a previous relationship.

He revealed that moments after Ms Quartsi crashed to the ground, he attempted to take a photograph of the cyclist, but another woman intervened.

This is the moment a boy aged ten smashed into Jane Ouartsi ash she walked in central London in August 2023 

Jane is pictured here laying on the pavement being tended to by members of the public

She suffered a broken femur, a fractured collar bone and two spinal fractures requiring three operations and has been battling other crippling health complications since the incident

Jane’s partner Dave Mathias say that oboth of their lives have been ruined by the accident

He recalled: ‘She said that it was her son who’s only ten and that I couldn’t take a photograph of him. They just left the bike on the ground and ran off. Since then, we’ve not been able to find out who the cyclist was.

‘I got a good look of him. He was just a young kid and shouldn’t have been on a Lime bike in the first place. But it has left us in a terrible situation. I’ve had to take a lot of time off work to look after Jane and she’s really suffering both mentally and physically.

‘This kid was going so fast, and we didn’t see him coming. He could have easily avoided hitting Jane. I just turned around and saw her falling to the ground and screaming.’

Mr Mathias said that he reported to the matter to police, but they closed the case after telling him that they were unable to establish the identity of the cyclist.

Lime claimed that the bike had not been hired through their app and was being used illegally, which meant they could not identify the cyclist either.

Mr Mathias said: ‘We’ve been abandoned by everybody. I’ve got the QR code of the bike, but Lime said they couldn’t help us because it had been broken into. But when that happens, these bikes make a loud noise when you peddle them.

‘We’d have heard this boy cycling towards us, but we didn’t hear a thing. I don’t understand why Lime aren’t able to investigate this matter and tell us who he is.’

Recalling the day of the accident he said: ‘We’d just been for lunch and were strolling across the square so that we could catch a bus to go home. We’d had a lovely day and had just been to see an art exhibition.

‘And then out of the blue, this child on a bike comes racing towards us. It all happened so quickly but it’s had a devastating impact on our lives.’

Mr Mathias who works as a cabinet maker and joiner, estimates that he has lost thousands of pounds by having to take time off work to help look after his partner.

He was informed by a lawyer that they would only be able to seek any compensation until it could be established who was cycling at the time of the incident.

Mr Mathias revealed that despite repeated requests to Lime to investigate, he has not heard from the company since January.

In total, she has spent 36 days in hospital and has also been diagnosed with PTSD claiming that her and her partner’s lives ‘will never be the same’ as they battle to get justice

The accident and her three operations has meant she has been forced to learn to walk again

Jane gave the Daily Mail pictures of her injuries to highlight the dangers of Lime Bikes 

He added: ‘They don’t seem to care and haven’t taken any responsibility for what happened. Nobody can be bothered to investigate this case, not Lime and not the police. It’s a total disgrace how we’ve been treated.’

Lime is one of a number of dockless hire e-bike operators in London and owns roughly 40,000 bikes across the capital.

Councils are paid by e-bike hire companies to operate in their boroughs, with riders paying to use the bikes per minute.

Their introduction has not been without controversy with many concerns over inconsiderate parking and riding.

Lime says it has public liability insurance.

Mr Mathias added: ‘These bikes are a nuisance, and things are getting out of control. It’s like they wild west. They are strewn all over the place and a lot of these cyclists are zooming around on pavements as fast as they can.

‘Jane is not the only person to have suffered serious injury in accidents with these bikes. Both the council and companies like Lime need to do more to ensure that they are being used responsibly but nobody seems bothered about doing anything.’

 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. 

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

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.