Doctors urge tougher stance on scramblers & e-scooters
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Why are doctors urging tougher rules on scramblers and e‑scooters?
Emergency Department doctors are set to tell the Oireachtas Justice Committee today that the measures introduced to curtail the use of scrambler bikes and e-scooters don't go far enough. Dr Shane Broderick, a consultant at The Matter, will tell the committee that emergency department presentations relating to these vehicles have roughly doubled in recent years, while Dr Luke Phillips, also from The Matter, We'll call for an outright ban on scramblers. Well, to get a picture of what the situation is like on the ground, I'm joined by Dr. Eanna McSwivna, consultant in emergency medicine and trauma medicine at Cork University Hospital. Eanna, good morning to you. Hi, David. How's it going? Good, thanks.
What types of injuries are most common from e‑scooter accidents?
Could you just give us an idea of the type of injuries you are seeing?
Yeah, I suppose, look, over the last number of years, there has been, as Shane and Luke have been describing, a concerning rise in the number of presentations of patients who come in with e-scooter injuries. In Cork, particularly, e-scooter will be the more common of the injuries as opposed to the scrambler bikes that we're seeing up in Dublin. But patients come in with a variety of injuries depending on the way in which they've come off their e-scooter. So if you're looking at the e-scooter itself, it's a... it's the wheels are closer together it's a smaller center of gravity sometimes these scooters are very high power to travel very fast up to 50 kilometers an hour sometimes if you lose control which is the predominant reason why people fall off is because they lose control um they may have time to react in which case if they do react they have upper limb injuries mostly um which can again range in severity from mild to severe and then if they don't have time to react you're looking at head injuries spinal injuries chest wall injuries
which again have a kind of mild, moderate, severe kind of severity spectrum.
Right, okay, so it's dependent on the severity, they may last a long time or they may be quite, recover from them quite quickly?
How severe can e‑scooter injuries become and when is hospital admission required?
Yeah, so like I mean you're looking at I suppose two groups of patients. Patients who kind of present to the emergency department or are seen and treated, their injuries are deemed to be kind of mild and suitable for outpatient management versus those who come and require admission. The majority of reasons why people get admitted would be because their injuries are severe enough that they require surgery, be it from an upper limb or lower limb point of view. Or patients who require kind of neuro-observation monitoring from their head injury point of view or blood on their brain. Again, traumatic brain injuries are unpredictable in nature in terms of their recovery and do require significant amount of rehabilitation.
That can translate into prolonged length of hospital stays or multiple interventions from different teams. Our neurosurgical colleagues are quite busy. I suppose in the last number of weeks, we've noticed no significant change in the amount of presentations of patients who are coming in.
Who is most affected by e‑scooter crashes – riders, pedestrians, or specific age groups?
from e-scooters.
Right, so the new rules don't appear to have made any immediate difference. What's the sort of profile of the patient you're seeing?
From an age point of view, again, it spans the spectrum. I'm not going into patient details, but I suppose we have had children come in in the last two months with head injuries, upper limb injuries from e-scooters. But equally, we've also had young adults come in with the occasional patient over 50 coming in with e-scooter related injuries as well.
OK. And do you see, I mean, is it mainly riders or do you see pedestrians with injuries?
Would an outright ban on scramblers and stricter e‑scooter rules reduce injuries?
It's mostly riders. Like I say, having looked back over the last six, seven months, patients who come in with e-scooter injuries, again, it's the loss of control of the e-scooter itself as opposed to direct impact with another vehicle, although that does happen. But it's the loss of control and falling off the e-scooter itself is the main reason why people are coming in.
Yeah, I mean, you're dealing with these injuries week in and week out.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
Why are doctors urging tougher rules on scramblers and e‑scooters?
0:00–0:38
2
What types of injuries are most common from e‑scooter accidents?
0:38–1:47
3
How severe can e‑scooter injuries become and when is hospital admission required?
1:47–2:42
4
Who is most affected by e‑scooter crashes – riders, pedestrians, or specific age groups?
2:42–3:18
5
Would an outright ban on scramblers and stricter e‑scooter rules reduce injuries?
3:18–4:09
6
What preventive measures (helmets, speed limits) could lower e‑scooter injury rates?
4:09–4:55