More Americans are taking electric scooters for a spin — and it’s been a bumpy ride.
In fact, the number of e-scooter-related injuries jumped 222% between 2014 and 2018, according to a new study published in JAMA Surgery, adding up to almost 40,000 broken bones, head injuries, cuts and bruises being treated in emergency rooms across the country.
And those injuries spiked over that last year, in particular, jumping 83% from 8,016 in 2017 to 14,651 in 2018.
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco analyzed U.S. government data on nonfatal injuries treated in ERs, and reported a “dramatic increase” in injuries and admissions associated with e-scooter use, which has become a popular form of alternative transportation across the U.S.
And the number of hospital admissions jumped 365% to almost 3,300 cases between 2014 and 2018, although most injured riders overall weren’t hospitalized. E-scooter riders aged 18 to 34 were also the most likely to be injured.
This study was limited in that it didn’t have details about collision scenarios, alcohol use or helmet use for each injury report, but two studies published last year reported that between 95% and 98% of injured e-scooter riders weren’t wearing helmets.
“We hope to raise awareness that riders should wear helmets and ride safely,” lead author Dr. Benjamin Breyer from the University of California, San Francisco told the Associated Press.
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This is the latest report to raise concerns about the rising number of e-scooter riders hitting the roads and sidewalks, in some cases before the riders have been properly trained to use the vehicle safely. In fact, one in three people injured on e-scooters gets hurt during their very first ride, according to a government safety report released last May.
The CDC and the Austin Public Health department analyzed emergency department data from nine Austin hospitals between September and November 2018.
The city’s almost 1 million people had access to about 14,000 dockless electric scooters, and the study counted 192 e-scooter-related injuries during those three months alone. Two were non-riders (a pedestrian and a cyclist), and the remaining 190 were navigating the motorized scooter at the time. But this report probably underestimated the true number of injuries, the authors noted, because it didn’t include urgent care centers or primary care physicians’ offices.
And one in three of those injured was riding an e-scooter for the first time. In fact, most of those who landed in the hospital were novices; about 63% had ridden just nine times or less before getting hurt.
Almost half of the accidents resulted in head injuries, as only one of the riders was wearing a helmet. The other most common injuries were to the upper limbs, including the arms, shoulders, wrists and hands (70%); the lower limbs, including the legs, knees, ankles and feet (55%); as well as the chest and abdomen (18%).
iStock Most of the accidents actually didn’t involve cars; only 10% of injured riders were hit by motor vehicles. Rather, half (50%) reported their accidents resulted from road conditions such as potholes and cracks. More than a third admitted they crashed while going too fast, and 10% said they hit a curb. Just under one in five (19%) claimed that their scooter malfunctioned. And more than half (55%) were injured in the street, while one-third were hurt on the sidewalk.
The report pushed for more training and education about e-scooter operation and safety to prevent injuries, advising that, “These educational messages should emphasize both wearing a helmet and maintaining a safe speed while riding an e-scooter.” And these PSAs should target riders ages 18 to 29, in particular, as nearly half of all injuries were reported in young adults, and more than one in four (29%) victims had consumed alcohol within 12 hours of crashing. As it stands, many of the scooter companies offer instructional videos on their apps — such as Lime’s “How to Lime” clip — but riders aren’t required to watch them before taking a spin.
Nick Shapiro, Lime’s vice president and Head of Trust and Safety, told MarketWatch in an emailed statement that, “Lime’s highest priority is the safety of our riders, and we advance this through rider education, community engagement, product innovation and policy development.” He added that, “we appreciate UCSF’s attention on this important topic and remain committed to ensuring safe rides for all users.” Reps for Bird were not immediately available for comment.
Motorized scooters from companies such as Bird, Lime and the Ford-owned F, +0.11% Spin have been appearing all over the country, generally charging users anywhere from 15 cents to $1 a minute to rent e-scooters docked throughout an urban area, which can zip around as fast as 15 miles an hour. (The average speed of most city bicycle riders is about the same, although one can hit 20 miles an hour when speeding down a hill.)
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The global e-scooter market is expected to hit $41.98 billion by 2030, according to Grand View Research, Inc. And that’s spurring ride-share heavyweights like Lyft LYFT, +1.13% and UBER, +0.12% Uber to get in on the action. Uber and Alphabet GOOG, +1.10% invested $335 million in Lime in 2018, and Lyft has rolled out its own motorized scooters in cities including Austin, Los Angeles, Miami and Washington, D.C.
But the rapid expansion of e-scooters is also revving up safety concerns. The Consumer Product Safety Commission reported 3,300 scooter-related injuries in 2016, and 25% of them occurred to the head and face. After the Bird scooter landed in Memphis, local doctors reported an increase in emergency department visits for head and face injuries, which were related to e-scooters. Again, many riders were not wearing helmets. After a 26-year-old Nashville resident died in a e-scooter accident in May 2019, the city’s mayor David Briley said he would recommend banning them. Chattanooga, Tenn. went ahead and enacted a six-month ban on dockless electric scooters and bikes.
A handful of e-scooter riders have also died in the U.S. after colliding with cars in Austin and Washington, D.C., while a Dallas man was killed after falling off his scooter while riding home from work. Last July, British YouTube star Emily Hartridge, who presented the online series “10 Reasons Why,” was killed in a collision with a truck, becoming the U.K.’s first death involving an e-scooter. She was 35.
But a Portland, Ore., study published in January 2019 also found that scooter safety risks were no worse than those found in other modes of city transportation. In fact, scooter-related injuries (including injuries from non-motorized scooters) only accounted for about 5% of the estimated 3,220 of total traffic crash injury visits to emergency rooms and urgent care centers. And while scooters were involved in 176 ER visits, that was less than half of the 429 visits for bicycle-related mishaps.
This story was previously published in May 2019, and has been updated with the new study published in JAMA Surgery.
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