E-Scooter Injury Rates Are Worse Than Motorcycles, New Study Finds

07 Apr 2022 | Abstracted from New Atlas

One 2020 study published in JAMA Surgery found the incidence of annual e-scooter injuries in the US climbed from 4,582 in 2014, before the emergence of ride-share scooter companies, to 14,651 in 2018, when they had become far more commonplace. Nearly a third of those were head injuries - more than double the rate endured by cyclists - with annual hospital admissions rising from 313 to 1,374 across the same period.

A 2021 paper titled "Electric Scooter-Related Injuries: A New Epidemic in Orthopedics," found that of 397 patients presenting to an emergency room over a 12-month period, only 19 were wearing helmets at the time of their accident. Twenty-five percent of the cases required surgery. Another systematic review published in 2021 estimated that every 100,000 trips resulted in 20 to 25 emergency department visits.

ADDITIONAL RELATED NEWS LINKS

• 8 Years Into America's E-Scooter Experiment, What Have We Learned?


• Electric Cars Are Not The Future Of Transport


• E-Scooter Companies Are Going Bankrupt. That Should Alarm You Even If You Hate Them


• Bird May Be Bankrupt, But Shared Micromobility Is Doing Just Fine


• The E-Bike Revolution Is Already Underway (In Developing Countries): 280m Micro-Vehicles On The Road And Rising


• Exploring E-scooter Licensing Requirements Across the Globe


• Research Shows Subsidies And Discounts For Two-Wheeled EVs Can Drive Active Transport


• Forget Teslas, India's EV Revolution Is Happening On Two Wheels


• The Micro-Mobility War: How Paris, One Of The World's Largest Scooter Rental Markets, Came To Ban Them


• 'Bottom Of The Food Chain': E-Scooter Riders Push For Reimagining Of Australia's Bike Lanes