Parents urged not to buy e-scooters or scramblers for children this Christmas
Dr Phillips said that children were not capable of piloting e-scooters at high speeds and that medical professionals were seeking to avoid serious injuries. Picture: Nick Potts/PA Wire
An emergency doctor has urged parents not to buy e-scooters or scramblers for their children this Christmas at an Oireachtas committee, saying new legislation meant children could not legally use them.
Dr Shane Broderick, consultant in emergency medicine and trauma at Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, was joined by his colleague Dr Luke Phillips, who said that between January 2021 and June 2026, four road users died and 59 were seriously injured in incidents involving scramblers.
Of those incidents, two of the people killed or seriously injured were not riding scramblers. All four people who died were male and under 23, and were travelling at speed in built-up areas with little protective equipment.
Dr Phillips said that children were not capable of piloting e-scooters at high speeds and that medical professionals were seeking to avoid serious injuries.
Presentations for e-scooter injuries have risen steadily over time, he added, with a third of childhood brain injuries coming from e-scooter injuries.
He said that nursing and medical staff welcome Grace's Law, which closed a loophole in the 2023 legislation and made the use of scrambler bikes illegal on public roads.
He said that this should be extended to include a ban on the import of non-road-legal devices and a national registry.
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Since September 4, it is now an offence to ride an e-scooter without wearing a helmet and a high-visibility item of clothing.
E-scooter users deemed to be non-compliant with the new rules can be issued a fixed-charge penalty of €100.
Sinn Féin TD for Dublin Mid-West Mark Ward said that scramblers were "terrorising" his area in Clondalkin and that this had grown in the last 10 years.
He asked the doctors if there had been any change in presentations since the passing of laws earlier this year.
Dr Broderick said that it was difficult to say as the numbers are so small. He said that seven injuries from scramblers had been seen this year overall, compared to five last year.
He said that data was needed to better understand the scale of the issue. He said that the system was "not catching at all" a number of incidents involving scramblers which had not been reported.
Dr Broderick said people injured in e-scooter incidents spent 300 days in hospital last year, describing the impact on the health service as a “huge burden”. Children spent an average of 18 days in hospital following such injuries.
Fine Gael TD Paula Butterly asked both doctors if they believed that there should be a mandatory reporting obligation on medical staff in situations where children present after having been in accidents while using e-scooters.
Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon asked both men if they wanted to see a ban on e-scooters, to which Dr Phillips said that the new rules went far enough.
Dr Broderick said that all options should be on the table, but that intervention and enforcement would be preferable.
Dr Phillips told Senator Michael McDowell that there is no current standard form for trauma incidents, but that Dr Broderick had developed one.
Labour TD Alan Kelly said that there were "glaring omissions" in the dataset for trauma.
Dr Broderick said that data remains incomplete, but said that London's handling of trauma overall is a blueprint for Ireland.
He said that Ireland's reduction in trauma deaths was "incremental", but "too slow".
He said that the "blueprint is there but is not being given emphasis" and could lead to "generational improvements".
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