A single Melbourne hospital had almost 250 injured e-scooter riders taken to its emergency department with injuries last year, with intoxication, speed and not wearing a helmet the biggest risk factors.
A study at the Royal Melbourne hospital revealed it had seen 247 riders and nine pedestrians due to e-scooter crashes last year. Two-thirds of the injured riders were not wearing helmets, while just over one-third said they had been drinking.
Of the hospitalisations, 21 experienced major trauma and one later died from a brain injury.
The study, which estimated the total hospital cost to be $1.9m, has sparked calls by senior emergency department doctors for tighter regulations on scooters to prevent debilitating injuries and death.
Dr Sarah Whitelaw, an emergency physician from Australian Medical Association Victoria, said the figures were confronting.
She said face and head injuries were common and could leave people with “functional lifelong scars”.
“It’s heartbreaking for us to hear from our patients that they just had no idea they could get so badly injured,” she said on Wednesday.
“These e-scooter injuries are on top of the motor vehicle accidents, so they’re not replacing injuries – they’re adding to the burden on the health system.”
Half of those who went to the hospital suffered injuries to their head, face or neck, and most patients were young – with an average age of 29 – and male (68%).
Almost 89% of injuries came from riders falling off their scooter.
Whitelaw said the Royal Melbourne hospital was still recording a significant number of e-scooter injuries in its emergency department, about 30 to 40 a month.
“If you consider that across the whole of Australia, it’s quite horrifying,” she said.
“The fact that these are potentially preventable injuries and they are taking up the time and hospital beds when we have such a huge elective surgery backlog.”
Victoria’s e-scooter trial began in February 2022, with 1,500 Lime and Neuron vehicles initially deployed across three council areas – Melbourne, Port Phillip and Yarra. The trial was extended for a third time in October and the state legalised private e-scooters on public roads in March.
The study did not specify if injuries were from rides using hired scooters or privately owned scooters.
Injures at Royal Melbourne hospital jumped from five in February 2022 to 40 in December last year.
Whitelaw said the cost to the system was likely to be three times the amount estimated by the study, as it only examined emergency department, hospitalisation and surgery costs.
“It doesn’t include ambulance transfer, rehabilitation, physiotherapy or lost income,” she said.
Whitleaw called for tighter regulation including e-scooter curfews, intoxication tests on phones and national investment in data collection of injuries.
“We’re truly at the very beginning of the e-scooter and the e-mobility device wave in Australia. So we need to take the opportunity to prepare,” she said.
Under the state’s trial, scooter riders must be aged 16 or over and must ride only on shared paths or on roads with a speed limit up to 60km/h. They must wear a helmet and must not exceed 20km/h, use a mobile phone or be under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Critics of the trial have pointed to scooters being ridden dangerously on the footpaths – a hazard for elderly people and people with a disability – and left strewn on the footpath.
A transport department spokesperson said the trial was extended to ensure there was comprehensive data to make a decision about e-scooters.
“The data … has shown that while there has been an increase in injury, this is primarily due to the significant growth in e-scooter use, and injury rates are similar to those for bikes,” the spokesperson said.
A Neuron spokesperson said e-scooters had been embraced in Melbourne.
“Feedback has been extremely positive and the vast majority of people ride responsibly, with over 99.99% of trips ending safely and without incident,” the spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for Lime said 99.9% of trips taken on the platform ended without incident.
“Following the legalisation of private e-scooters, this study shows that shared schemes, in terms of public safety, are the best way to introduce micromobility to the community,” the spokesperson said.
