According to a study, electric scooter riders are more likely to ride while intoxicated and without a helmet than cyclists.
It follows considerable concerns over the increasing use of e-scooters in the United Kingdom, which led to the 2019 death of social media star Emily Hartridge.
Since 2019, Norwegian researchers have investigated 3,000 emergency department visits involving e-scooters and bicycles in Oslo.
In only one out of every 50 accidents involving an e-scooter, which can reach speeds of up to 80 mph, the rider was wearing a helmet, compared to two-thirds of bike accidents.
Four out of ten injured electric scooter users were inebriated, and more than six out of ten injuries occurred at night.
Less than one in ten cyclists involved in accidents were intoxicated, while four in ten were riding at night.
The researchers advocated for strong alcohol prohibitions and midnight rationing of electric scooters.
It comes amid a heated discussion over whether they should be used in the United Kingdom due to safety concerns.
In 2021, nine deaths were related to e-scooters, compared to just one in 2019.
The British government is considering legalizing e-scooters to reduce traffic congestion and pollution.
Brits have been permitted to ride e-scooters in 30 sites, including Liverpool, Newcastle, and portions of London, as part of trials that are planned to run until November 2021.
Under the trial, renting and using the scooters is only permitted on roads and bike lanes, not on sidewalks.
Helmets are required, however, their use is not enforced. Also, the police rarely intervene when cyclists are observed riding on sidewalks.
The maximum speed is limited to 15.5mph, and the vehicles must be equipped with front and rear lights, first-ride policies mandating new users to complete an e-learning safety course, and a ban on riding on sidewalks.
There were 1,280 collisions involving e-scooters in 2021, resulting in 1,359 injuries and nine fatalities.
E-scooters, which cost approximately £3.25 for a 15-minute ride, have also been linked to fires, with 130 batteries igniting in London while being charged.
In July of 2019, YouTube celebrity Emily Hartridge was killed while riding her electric scooter on a busy roundabout in Battersea, south-west London.
The 35-year-old former Channel 4 host was the first person to die in the UK in an e-scooter-related accident, leaving behind a distraught family and boyfriend.
At the time of Ms. Hartridge’s death, e-scooters were prohibited in the United Kingdom, except on private property with the permission of the landlord.
In March of 2019, e-scooters were introduced in Norway.
According to experts from the University of Oslo, it became evident that riders were frequently intoxicated and did not wear helmets after their rapid rise in popularity.
While experts thought that e-scooters could indirectly improve public health by being more environmentally friendly than automobiles, only eight percent of consumers traded their car for an e-scooter. In the majority of cases (60%) it replaced walking.
The team determined that it was essential to comprehend the dangers and benefits of new modes of transportation by analyzing injury rates.
Between January 2019 and March 2020, they collected data on the number of cyclists and e-scooter riders who presented to emergency departments in Oslo with bicycle and e-scooter-related injuries.
They recorded the patients’ gender and age, the time of their accident, the damaged body part, and its severity. The researchers also recorded whether a helmet was worn and whether patients were intoxicated.
The results, which were published in the journal JAMA Network Open, indicate that 2,341 cyclists and 850 e-scooter riders were injured.
This means that the number of bicycle-related injuries was three times higher than e-scooter injuries (340 per 100,000 persons) (120,000).
However, riders of e-scooters were more careless.
Four in ten (39.5%) were intoxicated, and just one in fifty wore a helmet (2.1 percent).
Comparatively, 7.7% of cyclists were intoxicated, whilst 62.2% of riders wore helmets.
The discrepancy is likely due to the ‘unplanned’ nature of e-scooter travel, with no need to change clothes or freshen up, meaning that people are less inclined to carry a helmet.
As e-scooter travel is frequently unscheduled, it is more likely to occur on the way to a social gathering, outside of work hours, or after consuming alcohol.
And whereas most bicycle injuries occurred during the week (70%) and between 6 am and 5 pm (61%), most e-scooter injuries occurred on the weekend (46.6%) and between 5 pm and 6 am (66.4 percent).
Two-thirds of the injured cyclists and e-scooter users were male, according to the statistics.
This, according to the researchers, was most likely due to “gender differences in ordinary risk-taking behavior.”
Most injured e-scooter riders were between the ages of 20 and 40, although the range of ages among cyclists was substantially greater. Under-18s were involved in 20% of bicycle accidents but just 10% of e-scooter incidents.
The majority of e-scooter manufacturers implement age restrictions, reducing the number of young individuals involved in accidents.
Users of e-scooters were more likely to get head or neck injuries, whereas cyclists were more likely to sustain arm or shoulder injuries.
According to the researchers, there is ‘no clear explanation’ for the discovery, but it is ‘tempting to connect it to the lack of helmet wear among e-scooter riders.
Most were hurt in their arm or shoulder (42.1%), head or neck (24.8%), leg or foot (23.9%), or back or abdomen (22.1%). (9.1 percent).
Nevertheless, e-scooter riders were marginally more likely to sustain two or more injuries (3.3 percent vs 2.2 percent).
The researchers advocated obligatory helmet wear and comparable alcohol restrictions for e-scooters as those for automobiles.
In addition, nighttime restrictions on the usage of e-scooters and youth-targeted programs to raise awareness about the dangers of e-scooters should be implemented.
The team acknowledged that they relied on self-reported drunk rates among patients, who may have been deceived about their intoxication status.
And they began tracking e-scooter incidents in April 2019, when they were first introduced. As it takes time for more people to adopt new modes of transportation, injury data may be underreported during the first few months of their availability.
