Doctors warn of need to be prepared for e-scooter injuries

The Road Safety Authority expects an increase in the number of people using e-scooters on Irish roads when regulations are passed by Government later this year.

Leading Irish doctors have warned that they will need to “watch out” and be “all over” e-scooters ahead of their expected legalisation in the next few months.

Eight people have been injured and three killed while on e-scooters in Ireland in 2023.

Behaviour and attitude research earlier this year showed that 3% of people have admitted to using an e-scooter, despite them being illegal on Irish roads.

The Road Safety Authority (RSA) expects that figure to rise to 12% of people once regulations are passed by the Government later this year.

Speaking at the RSA’s annual conference on Wednesday, University College Cork Professor of Emergency Medicine Dr Conor Deasy said that a key balance needed to be struck.

He said: “We’ve seen in the past an increase in cycling injuries in relation to the Cycle to Work scheme so we need to balance the risk.

“It’s great to see people on bikes and [in] fresh air and exercise, but we need to ensure it’s done in a safe way as well and that the infrastructure is prioritised to keep them safe.

“We need to react quickly to minimise and mitigate the risk associated with it.

“The e-scooter piece, we have concerns around that. It’s a different risk profile for that of cycling a bike — cardiovascular benefits aren’t the same as cycling a bike so you can’t use that to balance.

We need to watch out. RSA data people will be all over it and we in the trauma unit will be all over it too.” 

Dr John Legge, a consultant in St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin, told representatives that there has been a steady increase in injuries related to e-scooters in recent years — before they are legalised.

“There were six in 2018, in 2019 it was 10, in 2020 it was 39, 2021 was 89, and then 2022 there were 95 people.

“They tend to be upper-arm injuries from people falling and bracing themselves.” 

The conference heard from a number of European nation representatives where e-scooters are already legal.

Across Europe, 10% of all vehicular traffic collisions in 2021 involved e-scooters.

What's your view on this issue?

You can tell us here

Nathan de Vos, a researcher at the VIAS institute in Belgium, explained how regulations in Brussels mean that e-scooters are not legally allowed on footpaths — which in itself has reduced the number of injuries.

On top of that, e-scooter users are now treated as cyclists in Belgian road law, meaning they need to follow the same rules and laws.

Espen Rindedal, from the Norwegian Ministry of Transport, said that previously the country had been “chaos” when it came to e-scooters, but that things are now “under control”.

“They (e-scooters) were regulated in 2019 and it was very popular — both private use and rental markets. So we had an explosive increase in use, which of course led to an increase in accidents.”

Measures introduced there included a country-wide regulation of the rental market (which cut accident numbers by 50%), the banning of the use of e-scooters on weekend nights (due to a large number of alcohol-involved collisions) and the compulsory introduction of insurance costs for e-scooters.

All representatives agreed that speed was a “huge factor” when it comes to e-scooter regulations — with both Belgium and Norway having a maximum speed of 25km/h.

Dr Legge noted that having dedicated e-scooter and bike lanes where they were separated from both pedestrians and cars was the “gold standard” in terms of safety.

He disagreed with the idea of banning them, noting: “They’re here now.”