E-scooter injuries

Electric scooters have gone from oddity to essential item for the inner-city commute, and even on Perth City’s quiet, pandemic deserted streets, it’s still almost impossible to walk for more than a few minutes without one zooming by at top speed.


But while e-scooters are growing in popularity everywhere, so are increasing rates of associated injuries, prompting a new two-year observational study by the Tampere University Hospital in Finland, which had two companies provide e-scooter rental services within the hospital’s catchment area.

The e-scooters were introduced in April 2019, and until April 2021, researchers performed a retrospective, cross-sectional study of patients admitted to the emergency department (ED) with e-scooter–related injuries, which provides 24-hour emergency services for a population of 550,000 – roughly the same size as Canberra.

The study, released this month, found that head and facial trauma were the most common e-scooter injuries, closely followed by wounds to extremities – led by distal radius and clavicle fractures.

Predictably, according to lead author Aleksi Reito, most of these patients were younger men and substance use was often involved, with 44% of the injuries that required treatment occurring between midnight and six am.

“We also contacted both e-scooter companies and requested user data (number of rides, kilometres driven) for the same period,” Mr Reito said.

“Injuries were categorized based on their anatomic location and severity: minor injuries included any laceration, contusion, or superficial injury without an imaging finding; and for head injuries, any sign or history of a head trauma without imaging finding was considered as minor.

“Any imaging finding, such as fracture, dislocation, or haemorrhage, was considered as major. In addition, imaging modalities, treatments, substance use, and discharge status were recorded.”

A total of 527 injuries were diagnosed in 331 patients (335 visits) who presented because of an e-scooter-related injury, with some 31% (103) suffering from a fracture or dislocation.

During the study period, 1,862,778 trips were made, and 4,592,549 km were driven on e-scooters, with the incidence of injured riders requiring admittance to the ED at 18.0 per 100,000 rides and 7.3 per 100,000 km driven.

The incidence of patients with major trauma was 5.9 per 100,000 rides and 2.4 per 100,000 km driven.

Medical Forum spoke with physiotherapist Dr Myles Murphy, from the Nutrition and Health Innovation Research Institute, School of Medical and Health Sciences at Edith Cowan University, about how the findings compared with field evidence from WA.

“The findings certainly demonstrate a substantial number of serious injuries from e-scooters and whilst I cannot directly compare the overall numbers, due to a lack of published data on the incidence here in Perth, we are definitely seeing more of these injuries clinically and the injury types and injury regions presented within the study certainly match those presenting to healthcare providers,” Dr Murphy said.

“We have seen a very varied presentation of e-scooter injuries however, most commonly we are seeing arm or clavicle (collar bone) fractures and/or ligament injury as well as head injuries such as concussion.

“In the interest of safety, I feel that laws related to speed, protective equipment and other safety features should be implemented and enforced, similarly to things like mopeds,” Dr Murphy said.

“E-scooters are a great initiative that should be encouraged – a number of friends and colleagues use these, and they seem to like them due to convenience and lower running costs – but like anything new we need to get the balance right in relation to safety.”

The WA Department of Transport advises that many e-scooters currently for sale in WA are illegal to use on public roads and paths in Perth, due to their powerful motors and high top-speeds (up to 160kmph).

The average top speed across all electric scooters for adults is 42 kmph, though most electric scooters have top speeds of at least 25 kmph.

Currently in WA, compliant e-scooters can only be legally ridden on low-speed public roads and paths if their maximum power output is no more than 200 watts, and they cannot travel more than 10 km/h on level ground.

Riders of e-scooters that are compliant with relevant power output and speed regulations also must follow the following rules under Road Traffic Code 2000:

  • Riders are permitted on footpaths and shared paths, so long as the rider keeps left and gives way to pedestrians also using the paths;
  • Riders must wear a helmet;
  • Riders cannot ride on roads with a speed limit exceeding 50km/h;
  • Riders cannot ride on roads with a dividing line or median strip;
  • Riders cannot ride on one-way roads with more than one marked lane; and
  • Riders cannot ride during the hours of darkness.