E-scooter rider had part of bowel removed after trauma injury involving handlebars
Doctors at the Mater Hospital in Dublin have compared some of the injuries sustained in e-scooter accidents to car crashes in a new study
A Dublin hospital has seen a surge in the number of patients presenting with injuries sustained in e-scooter accidents, which doctors say are similar to those caused by car crashes.
A total of 147 patients required X-rays at the Mater Hospital following e-scooter accidents between July 2020 and July 2021, according to a study just published in the Irish Journal of Medical Science – an average of more than a dozen every month.
The injuries included skull fractures, intracranial haemorrhage, facial bone fractures, and spinal injuries. One patient had to have part of their bowel removed after suffering abdominal trauma from the impact of the handlebars.
READ MORE: Boy, 14, killed in e-scooter horror crash with car in Kilkenny
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Almost 30 per cent of the patients had positive radiological findings following initial scans, the vast majority of which were upper limb injuries typical of a fall on outstretched hands.
Some 32 patients required advanced diagnostics using CT or MRI scans, 11 of which had positive findings, according to the research.
The authors of the study said e-scooter injuries were resulting in "a new and emerging high-energy trauma patient".
"These patients demonstrate injury patterns similar to other high-energy trauma such as road-traffic accidents," they wrote.
"Although the most common injuries are musculoskeletal upper limb injuries… a large proportion of these require advanced diagnostic imaging (CT, MRI) which were commonly positive for significant injuries."
The aim of the study was to quantify the volume and nature of radiological imaging performed for e-scooter-related trauma presentations at the Mater, and to identify common injuries.
The authors, all of whom work at the hospital, retrospectively reviewed all radiological imaging studies performed there during the 12-month period between July 2020 and July 2021.
Dr Frank Lyons, an orthopaedic surgeon at the Mater, said recently that people seemed to be getting injured on e-scooters while they’re still learning to use the electric vehicles.
"There’s definitely a trend where people seem to be injured in the early stages or on their initial journeys using the scooters. So, there is definitely a familiarity curve and perhaps people don’t appreciate for example the power of the scooters," he told Newstalk.
"They also handle differently to a bicycle or another two-wheeled type of vehicle that people may be used to. It brakes differently, it handles defects in the road surface differently and it turns differently – the wheels are much smaller and the braking mechanism is different."
Dr Lyons said people using e-scooters while intoxicated was also an issue, and he advocated making lights, helmets, and basic training mandatory before taking off.
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