The rate of electric scooter injuries among American millennials living in cities more than tripled in one year, researchers have found.
The research letter, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Surgery, comes from researchers in San Francisco. The city has been especially inundated by “micro-mobility” devices from startups renting e-scooters, bicycles and electric mopeds. The devices are usually used for short trips within cities.
Researchers from the University of California San Francisco and San Francisco general hospital called for more helmet access and generally, “improved rider safety measures and regulation”.
The group used the US National Electronic Injury Surveillance System to examine the rate of e-scooter injuries between 2014 and 2018. During that time, more than 39,000 e-scooter injuries were reported to the database.
Millennials had the greatest increase in injuries of any group, with a more than ninefold increase in injuries over four years. In 2014, 582 injuries were reported to the database among millennials. In 2018, 5,309 injuries were reported.
The vast majority of hospital admissions were in city settings and many of those injuries were serious. One quarter of injuries included a broken bone and one-third of injuries were to the head, double the rate among bicyclists. A separate 2019 study found less than 5% of e-scooter riders wear helmets.
Researchers called for more study and better safety features.
Dr Benjamin Breyer, one of the authors and an associate professor of urology at the University of San Francisco California, said: “I was just struck by how pervasive they [e-scooters] were… and seeing some people ride at very high speeds in and out of traffic and on sidewalks”.
Most concerning to Breyer was the high rate of head injuries among young adults. “There have been previous studies that show helmet usage among scooter users is low. Of all the injuries you can experience, head injuries are incredibly important, because if they’re severe they can lead to long-term disability,” he said.
