'I crashed into a bus on my e-scooter': Woman learns to walk again after freak accident

A woman who was involved in a freak e-scooter accident has revealed how she had to learn to walk again and is now running half marathons and climbing mountains.

Talia Lazarus, 27, from Elstree, Hertfordshire, was on her way to meet a friend for coffee when she collided with a bus.

She shattered her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her left leg and tore cartilage in her knee.

Her injuries were so bad she couldn't walk for a year and had to quit her job at an events company.

But, two years on and Lazarus has recovered from her injuries and is thriving.

Having learnt to walk again, incredibly she has since completed a half marathon and climbed Snowdon's 3,560ft peak.

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Lazarus collided with the bus on August 23, 2021 while riding an e-scooter down a hill.

She tried to fit through a gap between the pavement and a moving bus, which closed in on her, and she was knocked into the air.

Passers-by grabbed her when she hit the ground and pulled her onto the pavement.

"I was coming down a hill on the road, and I wasn’t really focusing," she says of the accident.

"There was a pavement, a gap and then the bus.

"I saw someone cycling through the gap - and I thought, ‘this is much wider than me, I can go through, too.'

"But I freaked out, lost control and veered into the kerb.

"I tried to stop the scooter by putting my left leg down, but I just picked up more speed and the bus flung me into the air.

"I was screaming - I saw the state of my leg, and I knew it was sinister."

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When the paramedics arrived, they asked Lazarus whether she would be able to walk to the ambulance, but when she tried she describes her left leg going one way, and her right going the other, like "cooked spaghetti."

An ambulance took her to London Bridge Hospital, where an MRI revealed she’d completely torn her ACL.

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She faced countless sessions of physiotherapy, as well as two major surgeries to reconstruct the ligament.

"I lost all independence," she explains. "Not only could I not walk, I was told by surgeons I wasn’t allowed to."

Her long recovery, over a year and three months, started in short bursts, like hopping from the sofa to the sink with the aid of crutches.

But having started to get back on her feet, in December 2022 Lazarus decided on a whim to sign up for a half marathon, which would take place over a year later.

"After my surgeries, I slowly got stronger, and my walking gradually got better," she says of her recovery.

"And once the physio okayed me to start training for the marathon, I decided to accept the challenge.

"I started by setting small personal goals, like running 13km. Then I started challenging myself to run longer lengths.

"Sometimes my body wouldn’t want to do it, but my mind would, so I'd do it."

On April 2, 2023, Talia completed her half marathon and in August she climbed Mount Snowdon - near to the second anniversary of the accident.

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As well as her physical injuries, Lazarus says she pushed herself to overcome the psychological impacts of her accident.

"The day after the accident, I saw a bus drive by and all of a sudden, I started to breathe heavily," she explains.

"Within the hour, I was having a full-blown panic attack, with numb legs, arms and jaw. I thought I was having a stroke.

"I went back to hospital, and the same doctor who treated me the day before was on reception - he took one look at me and said, ‘you’re having a panic attack’.

"I was never officially diagnosed with PTSD, but I did get straight on the phone with a therapist, knowing I wanted to nip it in the bud."

Despite her experiences Lazarus says she feels "grateful" for the accident, as it encouraged her to change her life.

She now works as a sports presenter for her own podcast, and, having taken up marathon-running and climbing says she is the fittest she's ever been.

"I put my body through unimaginable challenges," she explains.

"I never thought I'd have to relearn how to walk at 25, but now, I'm fitter than ever."

Additional reporting SWNS.