E-scooters triple brain injury risk over motorcyclists
Get the Health newsletter
Daily health & science — research, biotech, public health, the studies worth knowing. Free.
- E-scooter riders are three times more likely than motorcyclists to suffer traumatic brain injuries and 1.5 times more likely to injure internal organs, per a study of collisions across 18 cities in England and Wales from 2020–2022.
- Brain injuries accounted for more than a third of adult e-scooter injuries, with riders also sustaining more internal organ and blood vessel damage than motorcyclists or pedal cyclists, though their bone fracture rate was lower.
- Women were involved in about a third more e-scooter collisions than men and were more than twice as likely to report severe injuries, partly because handlebars are typically set at a height suited to men, producing harder chest impacts.
- Children made up 16% of e-scooter injuries among under-18s, even though fewer than 6% of riders in the study reported wearing a helmet.
- David Bodansky, a consultant hand, trauma and orthopaedic surgeon at Chelsea and Westminster hospital NHS foundation trust, analyzed the national major trauma registry and published the findings in Scientific Reports.
- Dr Petya Ventsislavova of Nottingham Trent University said the figures show an "urgent need for comprehensive legislation" including mandatory safety training, arguing e-scooters "were introduced without any requirement for formal training, despite being motorised vehicles."
- Around 1 million e-scooters are privately owned in the UK, and although they cannot legally be used on public roads, paths or cycle lanes, police have confiscated thousands for breaking the law.
Why it matters: With roughly 1 million privately owned e-scooters already illegal on UK roads and rental trials running since 2020, the findings hand regulators concrete injury data — particularly on women and children — to justify compulsory helmets, training, and design standards before any legalisation expands.
Ask SkimNews
