Scooter injuries piling up in state capital; 82 hurt in 2019
Be careful out there when it comes to traveling on your electric scooter.
From Jan. 1 through Dec. 19 this year, Columbus Fire reported 82 injuries associated with electric scooters.
According to Battalion Chief Steve Martin, scooter injuries occur mainly in the downtown area, with falls, failure to control and riders being hit by vehicles making up the most-common cause of injuries.
By comparison, 894 pedestrians had been struck by a motor vehicle during that same period, Martin said. “All kinds of stuff are dangerous,” he added.
Dr. Shay O’Mara, Ohio- Health’s trauma system chief, said 37 people with injuries connected to scoot- ers were admitted to OhioHealth Grant Medical Center this year.
He said the injuries tend to fall into three categories: scooters versus cars; scooters hitting some sort of immov- able object or simply wiping out.
About one in four of those who went to Grant were intoxicated, O’Mara said.
The belief that scooters are a safe alternative to drink- ing and driving is incorrect, said Dr. Nick Kman, an emergency medicine physician at Ohio State University’s Wex
ner Medical Center.
“It is not safe to ride an electric scooter at 15 miles per hour when you are intoxicated,” he said.
While riders of all ages ended up going to Grant, most were older, O’Mara said.
The average age of injured riders who went to that hos- pital was 42, he said. Only two patients were under 20.
“I’m wondering if younger people didn’t come to the hospital, or if they’re not fall- ing over as often,” he said.
And the injuries were seri- ous in some cases.
Three people were admit
ted to the intensive care unit, two with significant head injuries. Another broke his neck, but was not paralyzed. No one died, O’Mara said.
One thing was clear to the doctor.
“Nobody’s putting on a helmet before they get on a scooter,” O’Mara said.
Kman said he also doesn’t see people on campus wear- ing helmets.
To promote the safety feature, Bird rolled out a “hel- met selfie” program earlier this month, asking riders to take selfies of themselves with their helmets at the end
of each trip. Doing so, makes them eligible for incentives such as future ride credits.
Bird has also provided more than 75,000 free helmets over the past 18 months across the country, but Bird said it hasn’t resulted in more usage.
A Bird spokeswoman said the company wants to encourage safe and responsi- ble riding. Asked about lawsuits filed against the com- pany, she said she couldn’t comment on litigation.
A year ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reviewed medical records of people using emergency medical services from Sept. 5, 2018, to November 2018 in Austin, Texas.
City officials there asked for the review, concerned about scooter-related crashes, including the death of a 21-year-old University of Texas student from Ireland, who died a day after colliding with a car in January.
CDC researchers found that 271 people were iden- tified with potential scoot- er-related injuries during that period. Of those, 130 confirmed having an injury.
Of the injuries reported, 45% were head injuries, 27% were upper extremity fractures, and 12% lower extremity fractures,
Most incidents — 52% — occurred in the street, with 29% involving first-time riders and 18% involving motor vehicles. Less than 1% were using helmets. The injury incidence rate was 14.3 per 100,000 trips.
Earlier this year, Atlanta banned the use of scooters after dark after three riders lost their lives in collisions in the city, and a fourth died in an Atlanta suburb.
As far as citations Colum- bus police issued to scooter riders for various infractions, Amy Morris of the division’s public records unit said police don’t track scooter incidents and didn’t know how many tickets were written.
Police can issue citations if scooter users ride on sidewalks, go faster than 20 mph, ride them on freeways, ride two people at a time, or wear earphones in both ears.
In Columbus, three companies — Bird, Lime and Spin — can deploy up to 500 scooters at any given time throughout the city.
This past week, with winter here if not exactly winter weather, the three companies combined had launched about 300 scooters in the city, said Frank Williams, administrator of infrastructure management for the city’s public service department.
Williams said each company also has been meeting goals of placing 20% of scooters in what the city considers struggling, low-income “opportunity” such as Linden, the Near East Side, the Hilltop and Franklinton.
In April, Williams sent Bird a letter threatening to impound the company’s scooters if it didn’t starting meeting the 20% goal as required in its city contact.
“The goal is serving opportunity neighborhoods, not overcrowding downtown,” Williams said.
Lyft pulled out of t he Columbus scooter market in Columbus in July. And he expects more companies to launch in the spring.