Study: E-Scooter Riders Most Often End Up In The ER Due To Head Injuries, Broken Bones

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The first study conducted on injuries connected to electric scooter riders found that those who ended up in the emergency room suffered chiefly from head injuries and broken bones.

Researchers with University of California, Los Angeles released details Friday of a one-year-long study, which looked at 249 patients at UCLA-affiliated hospitals around Los Angeles, one of the first cities to see electric scooters in 2017.

Since then, e-scooter companies, such as Lime, Bird and Skip, have deployed e-scooters in several American cities. Last summer, Bird and Lime came to the Twin Cities, prompting local lawmakers to figure out how to deal with the dockless devices that suddenly appeared on the sidewalks and roadways.

RELATED: Scooters Getting Put Away On Friday, But Likely Not For Good

As for injuries suffered by e-scooter riders, the study found that one out of three people who went to the emergency room had to be brought by an ambulance. The most common injuries were head injures (40 percent), fractures (32 percent) and soft-tissue injuries (28 percent).

Additionally, most of the injuries that landed people in the ER were the result of simple falls (nearly 74 percent). Only 8 percent of scooter riders hospitalized had been hit by a car.

Of the injured riders, about 5 percent had an alcohol blood level greater than 0.05 or appeared to be intoxicated to doctors, researchers say. Only about 4 percent of injured scooter riders had been wearing a helmet.