Riding an e-scooter looks casual, but it’s not without risk. According to an Essen clinic study, the number of accidents is likely to be significantly higher than previously officially recorded.
Essen – According to a study by the University Hospital Essen, apparently more people have accidents with e-scooters than are recorded in the official statistics.
Head injuries are often the result – in the cases recorded in the study, the drivers almost always did not wear a helmet. The authors of the Essen accident surgery recommend a helmet requirement for the scooter. The most common cause of accidents with e-scooters with their comparatively small wheels was said to be falling over curbs that were too high. This should be taken into account in future traffic planning and the expansion of cycle paths.
Rarely reported the accident to the police
For the study, the large Ruhr area clinic recorded all patients who reported to the emergency room after e-scooter accidents from June 15, 2019 to the end of October 2020. In a second step, these 68 scooter drivers who had had an accident were asked by telephone whether they had reported their accidents to the police. Almost three quarters (73.5 percent) of the accidents were not reported to the police, according to the result. Since the Essen emergency room study does not record all but only seriously injured scooter drivers, it can be assumed that there will be significantly more scooter accidents than previously known.
The Federal Statistical Office first reported official accident figures for 2020 at the end of March last year. According to this, there were 2,155 e-scooter accidents with personal injury nationwide that year, 566 of them in NRW and 21 in Essen.
Driving under the influence of alcohol
According to the Essen study, 70 percent of the injured scooter drivers (48) had to be hospitalized, 20 underwent surgery and 8 came to the intensive care unit. The head, cervical spine and upper extremities were most frequently injured. Only one of the 68 e-scooter drivers involved in the accident wore a helmet, although several studies have shown that this can significantly reduce the severity of injuries. In contrast, accident victims included for comparison who were traveling by bicycle or e-bike wore a helmet in more than 50 percent of the cases in the same period.
According to the Essen study, 11.8 percent of scooter drivers had an accident while under the influence of alcohol (8). Half of these alcohol-related accidents involving e-scooters resulted in serious head injuries. All of these accidents happened over the weekend or a holiday. The authors of the study therefore recommend more inner-city checks of e-scooter drivers at weekends. dpa
