Study: Life-threatening e-scooter injuries becoming more common
Shared electric scooters are now common in many cities -- and so are the injuries they cause. Researchers are just recently catching up to translate those concerns into numbers.
Electric scooter rules are clear but often broken. Some of the rules include helmet use and no riding on sidewalks (the scooters are restricted to bike lanes).
A yearlong study in southern California published in JAMA found only about 4 percent of scooter injury patients wore helmets. Head injuries accounted for 40 percent of patient mishaps on scooters, which were often life-threatening.
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According to orthopedic surgeon Dr. Joseph Schreiber, those injuries required people to be transferred to the intensive care unit for bleeding into the brain, or intercranial hemorrhages.
When it comes to e-scooters, Schreiber mostly sees broken bones, which make up more than 31 percent of injuries. Fractures of the arm, wrist or hand are most common, he said, and surgery often involves permanent plates and pins.
Another scooter rule that's often ignored is the "no double riders" rule. Schreiber once saw "double patients" who ran over a pot hole in the dark of night.
"They both fell off and had fairly significant injuries," said Schreiber. "You're moving on an object going 15 mph. The body is not necessarily designed to be able to withstand that."
The JAMA study found that more than 10 percent of patients with injuries were younger than 18 years of age, but Schreiber has seen scooter patients older than 50.
The JAMA study reports almost 5 percent of scooter injury patients either had a blood alcohol level greater than .05 percent or their physician perceived them to be intoxicated.
"I think, first and foremost, the best thing you can do to minimize the risk of a serious injury is to wear a helmet," said Schreiber.
