That the electric scooter It has more danger than we could imagine at first glance is something we already knew. What we did not imagine is that this team on wheels was sending tanta people to the hospital. This is confirmed by a new study in which they have counted the cases of emergency care performed in a center caused by a scooter.
Many accidents and few helmets
JAMA medical journal Journal of the American Medical Association) collects a study carried out by the University of California (Los Angeles, USA) that is much more revealing and worrying than we could imagine. And it is that in the report it was intended count the number of emergency services that are carried out in two hospital centers in Los Angeles whose accident was due to an electric scooter.
The number collected was higher than expected: 249 people, who were treated for injuries from August 2017 to September 2018, the most frequent being fractures and head concussions. Of this volume, 92% of those attended were the drivers themselves, while the remaining 8% were unrelated to the vehicle (from pedestrians to people who had tripped over a parked scooter).
Although most of the injuries, as we have said, were fractures or head trauma, only 10 people of the 249 registered were wearing a helmet at the time of the accident -it is not mandatory for adults. Twelve drivers of the total were drunk and 11% were under 18 years of age.
From the data, it can be deduced that there is a false sense of security when driving an electric scooter, whose speed can sometimes reach a figure high enough to cause a serious accident. Such is the little fear that one has of him, for example few wear helmets and not even the companies that offer scooter rental services require customers to use this protection accessory.
Paul Steely White, director of public safety and legal affairs at Bird (a scooter rental company, operating in many countries such as Spain), wanted to remove iron to the matter and has indicated in a statement issued that the study "does not take into account the large number of trips made on electric scooters" and that registered injuries are only 1% of the total number of e-scooter rides. He also adds that this study does not put into perspective the number of motorcycle and car accidents that occur every day, thus being more alarmist than it actually is.
And you, what do you think about it? Do you travel by electric scooter? do you usually wear a helmet?