Riding a scooter? Use your helmet. Trauma centre warns of rise in injuries to children

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As the popularity of electrically powered scooters among young riders grows and, with it, the prevalence of injuries, the Montreal Children’s Hospital Trauma Centre has issued an alert urging vigilance.

Eight e-scooter-related injuries were treated in the hospital’s emergency department during all of 2023. There have been seven in the past few weeks alone.

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“We are concerned because we are just at the tip of what could become a bigger issue and we want to prevent other families from dealing with life-threatening injuries — or worse,” said Debbie Friedman, trauma director at the hospital and program director of the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program (CHIRPP).

Between 2011 and so far in 2024, 55 e-scooter-related injuries were treated in the emergency department of the Children’s, according to data from the hospital and CHIRPP; 34 of them from 2021 onward. The majority of the injured, 63 per cent, were males. More than 40 per cent of those injured were not wearing helmets and, among those who were, the straps weren’t always fastened properly.

Injuries have included traumatic brain injuries, fractures, lacerations, facial trauma, broken teeth and sprains. In at least 10 per cent of cases, the injuries are serious enough to necessitate hospital admission and the involvement of trauma specialists, said Friedman, who is also an associate professor in McGill University’s department of pediatrics and pediatric surgery. An additional 50 per cent require follow-up.

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A three-year pilot project aimed at regulating the use of e-scooters and other motorized personal mobility devices in Quebec came into effect in July 2023. Until then, e-scooters were tolerated and increasingly widespread, if officially illegal. The project’s goal, the transport ministry said, is to evaluate the safe integration of e-scooters into traffic flow and to determine whether new regulations governing their use should be added to the Highway Code.

Under the project’s terms, riders must be at least 14 and helmets are mandatory. They are permitted only on roads with a posted speed limit no higher than 50 km/h. They must ride like cyclists — on bicycle paths or at the side of the road — and adhere to rules of the road. Passengers are prohibited and the maximum speed e-scooters are permitted is 25 km/h. Ear buds and cellphones are not allowed. The fine for failing to comply with regulations is $200.

Yet these conditions are often flouted: Helmetless e-scooter riders, sometimes with passengers, are a not-infrequent sight zipping around on Montreal roads.

Riding an e-scooter requires co-ordination, balance and judgment, Friedman said. “Speed picks up quickly on these scooters and there are speed bumps all over the place.”

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Ubiquitous construction and infrastructure projects and poor conditions on many roads increase the risk of losing control, she said. Wednesday’s hospital alert cites research showing that many e-scooter-related injuries are related to road conditions.

Fourteen-year-old Al Housseini Diacko died after the electric scooter he was riding was struck by a car in Ahuntsic-Cartierville as he crossed at an intersection on a green light the evening of June 24. He had received the e-scooter in April as a birthday gift from his parents. He was not wearing a helmet.

On the morning of July 8, a 12-year-old boy on an e-scooter was hit by a car in St-Léonard. He was conscious when taken to hospital and police said his life was not in danger; the 57-year-old female driver who struck him was making a right turn from Metropolitan Blvd. onto Viau Blvd. as the rider was crossing Viau at a pedestrian crossing.

Half the e-scooter-related injuries treated in emergency at the Children’s over the past five years have been in children younger than 14, Friedman said. The minimum age for riding an e-scooter is 16 in many other jurisdictions, including elsewhere in Canada and in Europe, she said, and the permitted maximum speed is 20 km/h. “We are questioning whether the minimum age should be higher and the maximum speed lower,” she said.

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At Hôpital Ste-Justine, 16 of 25 e-scooter-related injuries treated from 2020 through 2023 were in young people 10 to 14 years old, said Dr. Mélanie Labrosse, a pediatric emergency medicine physician in charge of traumatology in the emergency department. Figures for 2024 are not yet available, but 15 of the 25 injuries were in 2023. Few of the 25 were admitted, but 11 required follow-up visits.

Seven of the 25 injuries were in the 15-19 age group and two were between the ages of five and nine; presumably one or both were e-scooter passengers.

At least one rider was travelling at 60 km/h, two were riding at 50 km/h and one was riding at 30 km/h, she said. It is known that eight of the 25 young patients were not wearing helmets and five were; whether the rest were was not determined.

As many young riders do not respect the regulations and exhibit risk-taking behaviours, “the context is there for injuries to increase,” said Labrosse, an assistant professor in the Université de Montréal’s Faculty of Medicine. She suggested a campaign to increase adherence to the regulations and also stiffer fines.

Said Friedman of the Montreal Children’s: “The public needs to be aware that regulations exist. And regulations need to be enforced.”

sschwartz@postmedia.com

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