Bird, a scooter rental company, has been sued in Travis County by a man who says he was injured after tripping over a Bird scooter. [RALPH BARRERA / AMERICAN-STATESMAN] ▲

Without warning, Mark Walters found himself tripped up by a Bird electric scooter lying in the middle of a North Austin sidewalk in November, he said.

His resulting injuries ended up costing him $2,400 in hospital bills, according to a lawsuit Walters filed in Travis County last week against the California-based scooter rental company. He is seeking compensation to cover his medical expenses and legal fees, he told the American-Statesman.

Bird did not respond to a request for comment on the suit.

Lawsuits against scooter rental companies have begun to crop up as the vehicles have spread to big cities in Texas and across the country since at least the start of last year — Dallas, San Antonio, Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver, and Atlanta are all markets for at least one scooter company.

Another Austin resident, Michael Fuchs, filed a petition in small-claims court for $3,000 in August after he said his vehicle was side-swiped by a person riding a Lime scooter.

Lime and Bird were sued in Los Angeles County in October in a class-action lawsuit filed by eight people who claim the companies are "aiding and abetting assault" and acting negligently, The Washington Post reported. The suit said the scooters were a public nuisance and were causing injuries by being dropped off without warning across the county, according to the newspaper.

Lime and Bird each have 5,000 scooters in Austin, most of which operate outside the downtown area.

"The risk is just too high, given that the thousands and thousands of scooters have just been dumped and are continuing to be dumped around the city," Walters said.

Walters — who was profiled by the Statesman three years ago after filing ethics complaints against then-City Council Member Don Zimmerman, is a 47-year-old online law student at St. Francis School of Law. He is representing himself in his lawsuit against Bird.

He also has filed a number of lawsuits over the years, including one against the city of Austin after he said he broke an ankle jogging on the Steck Avenue bridge over North MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1).

"I don't go around looking to sue people," he told the Statesman in 2016, adding that going to court is a last resort.

In his latest court filing, Walters said he told Bird about his injuries and it offered him $2,000. He declined the offer because it did not cover all his medical costs, he said.

"We couldn't reach an agreement. I'm not looking to take them to the cleaners. It's just a matter of what's just and what's fair and what's right," Walters said. He said Bird might want to settle the issue without going to trial.

Walters said he was jogging south on Burnet Road about 12:15 p.m. on Nov. 13, 2018. When he turned west onto Lawnmont Avenue, he crashed over a Bird scooter and scraped his right knee and landed on his right shoulder, the suit stated.

"It gave me a very nasty abrasion, open wound on my knee," Walters said.

Walters claims Bird was negligent and failed to keep its scooters from obstructing a public path, and that it did not control the equipment in a way that would have avoided a collision. According to city rules that were adopted Nov. 9, scooters must be parked in a secure, upright position when left on a sidewalk with at least three feet of space for a pedestrian.

He also claims that the scooters create danger for pedestrians because they do not have "warning devices such as lights, sounds or reflective striping."