The Public Health Department of Austin, Texas, has released a report on the number of injuries sustained by riders of rentable dockless electric scooters (“e-scooters”) during a three-month period last year.
E-scooters are shared electric-assisted scooters that are an emerging transportation modality being introduced in cities nationwide.
The report explained that e-scooters first appeared in Austin in early April 2018. E-scooters are rented for short periods of time via a phone application, have a narrow platform where the rider generally stands with one foot in front of the other, and travel at speeds up to approximately 15 miles per hour.
From September 5 through November 30, 2018, a total of 936,110 e-scooter trips were taken. These trips were associated with 182,333 hours of e-scooter use and 891,121 miles ridden on e-scooters.
The report said that a total of 271 persons with potential e-scooters-related injuries were identified during the study period. Almost half of the injured riders in the study sustained an injury to the head, and a traumatic brain injury was experienced by 15 percent.
The report found that helmet use might reduce the risk of head and brain injuries in the event of an e-scooter crash; that few (10 percent) riders sustained injuries by colliding with a motor vehicle; that more than one-third (37 percent) of injured riders reported that excessive e-scooter speed contributed to their injury; and that 63 percent of injured riders had ridden an e-scooter nine times or fewer before injury.
Steven A. Meyerowitz
Steven A. Meyerowitz, a Harvard Law School graduate, is the founder and president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. He may be contacted at [email protected].