Hitting the streets from Vancouver’s west coast to Nova Scotia’s eastern shores, electric scooters are zooming into Canadian cities, embraced as a convenient and eco-friendly mode of transportation.
However, this newfound popularity comes with growing safety concerns, as emergency room physicians warn about the dangers of using e-scooters due to a reported increase in related injuries.
“As emergency physicians across the country, we’re seeing incredible injuries from e-scooters,” Toronto-based emergency physician Dr. Raghu Venugopal said.
“We’re needing to activate trauma teams, we’re needing different surgical specialists to come in and treat the multiple traumatic injuries. We’re seeing collarbones shattered needing surgery, we’re seeing six to seven rib fractures in healthy people, we’re seeing ankles destroyed, needing surgery. And we’re seeing internal bleeding in the brain.”
Wearing helmets and wrist guards and avoiding speeding are essential for staying safe while riding, Venugopal said. Unfortunately, many people ignore these precautions. He noted that many injured patients ride their e-scooters at high speeds without helmets.
Electric scooters have become a familiar sight in Canadian cities, thanks in part to the surge of scooter-sharing programs. Companies like Bird and Lime have set up shops in major cities like Vancouver, Calgary and Mississauga, Ont., allowing residents to rent these vehicles by the hour.
Bird Canada launched in 2019, and since then has expanded to 25 Canadian cities, a company spokesperson told Global News in an email Wednesday.
“They are a safe, sustainable, and fun way to get from point A to point B without the need for a car,” the spokesperson said.
“Injuries as a proportion of rides has steadily decreased in Canada for some time. Study after study for the Canadian market by cities with programs have concluded they are at least as safe if not safer than traditional bicycles.”
However, health-care professionals have warned they’re seeing a rise in e-scooter injuries, prompting Montreal Children’s Hospital to issue an alert last week. In the past three months, the hospital said it has seen seven cases. That’s up from a total of eight last year.
“The types of injuries we see are head injuries, broken bones, things like that. The more serious ones are the head injuries and head injuries are quite common,” said Liane Fransblow, the trauma co-ordinator at the Montreal Children’s Injury Prevention Program.
Hospitals are treating e-scooter injuries in children as young as five, often without helmets, she said.
Fransblow warned that unless regulations and enforcement are tightened, these injuries will only rise alongside the growing popularity of e-scooters.
Laws regarding e-scooters vary not only from province to province but also from city to city across Canada.
In Vancouver, riders must be at least 16 years old, wear a helmet, walk their e-scooter when on a sidewalk, use a bell when passing others and ensure they do not exceed 25 km/h, and there are no passengers allowed. E-scooter rules in Vancouver (among other communities in B.C.) are part of a pilot project aimed at evaluating their use in commuting.
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E-scooters are banned in other cities in the province, such as Surrey.
In Alberta, while scooter-sharing programs are permitted in some cities, personal e-scooters are not allowed on public sidewalks or roadways due to a lack of provincial approval for use beyond private property. And although wearing a helmet isn’t legally required in the province, it is strongly recommended.
In Ontario, e-scooters are legal in some cities but come with some restrictions. Riders must be at least 16 years old and wear a bicycle helmet if under 18. The speed limit is capped at 24 km/h and sidewalks are off-limits for e-scooters.
Similar to British Columbia, some Ontario cities like Mississauga and Oshawa have embraced e-scooters, while Toronto has opted for a temporary ban.
In Quebec, you can ride e-scooters if you’re at least 14 years old. You have to wear a helmet and stick to speed limits. And if you are between the ages of 14 and 17, you need a special licence to ride an e-scooter, e-bike or moped.
E-scooters and other motorized vehicles, like electric skateboards and bikes, have quickly gained popularity in Canada due to their fun, convenient and environmentally friendly nature, said Dr. Blair Bigham, an emergency room doctor in Toronto.
However, he cautioned that e-scooter riders should recognize that riding one is like driving a vehicle but without the same protection, and should approach it with similar caution to reduce risks of injury.
He emphasized the importance of wearing wrist guards and a helmet while riding an e-scooter, noting the high incidence of wrist and brain injuries among riders.
“Wrist guards are so important, and I don’t think a lot of people realize that. But when you fall you often catch yourself with your hands, which can lead to serious wrist injuries if you’re not protected,” Bigham said.
Venugopal warned that the most significant safety issue he observes with injuries is “speed, speed, speed.”
“Many of the users of e-scooters are going at very high speeds. I’ve had patients tell me with multiple injuries that are serious that they were keeping up with the cars,” he said.
“People’s faces are literally shattered … and when the bones in their face are shattered, it’s not going to be the same afterward. Users really need to pause and think about how fast they’re travelling in just pure concrete environments and how you know the human body against concrete at a high speed, it’s just a disaster.”
Another common issue Venugopal sees is multiple people riding one e-scooter. These devices are designed for single occupancy only, he stressed.
Brain trauma resulting from not wearing a helmet is another huge safety issue, said Kelly Vogt, a trauma surgeon at the London Health Sciences Centre in London, Ont.
“We see a lot of people who come in without a helmet on who are still going the recommended speed limit who are injured quite substantially,” she said. “It can cause severe, devastating brain injuries that people can never recover from.”
Venugopal, Bigham and Vogt all recognize the advantages of e-scooters as an alternative mode of transportation in both urban and suburban settings.
However, they emphasized that it is possible to ride more safely on the roads and minimize the risk to your body.
“I don’t want to pretend like I’m against e-scooters. I mean, this is a revolution for a lot of micro transporters in congested cities or even in suburban areas where things are spread out,” Venugopal said. “And so I think our municipal leaders need to think about how we’re going to incorporate this important new mode of transportation.”
Vogt stressed the importance of riding e-scooters free of any intoxication from substances such as drugs or alcohol.
“Anything that impairs your ability to react and respond is dangerous,” she said.
She added that it’s also crucial for people to wear all necessary protective equipment and believes helmets should be mandatory for all ages.
Her number one piece of advice is to be aware of your surroundings when going for a scoot.
Even though there aren’t requirements for licences (for e-scooters), you are a vehicle on the road, and you need to be aware and follow the rules of the road,” she said.
— with files from Global News’ Gloria Henriquez