Warning issued after 'cluster' of e-scooter accidents involving teens who got them for Christmas

Darragh Mc Donagh

A “cluster” of accidents occurred in Dublin last year involving children who had received e-scooters as Christmas presents, a new study has found.

Doctors at Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) at Crumlin and the Department of Paediatrics at Trinity College examined four cases in which young teenagers were injured in the weeks after Christmas.

All four patients required surgery under general anaesthetic for a range of injuries, including facial abrasions, a fractured jaw, broken teeth, and a full-thickness laceration of the lip.

Only one of the teenagers had been wearing a helmet at the time of the accident, the study noted, and three of the incidents occurred on a main road. The victims required an average of 23 days of outpatient care.

In one of the accidents, two girls, aged 16 and 15, had been riding on an e-scooter together. Carrying passengers on the electric vehicles has since been prohibited by legislation introduced last year.

They crashed into a footpath on a main road. The 16-year-old suffered abrasions to both cheeks, her forehead, and her nose. The 15-year-old sustained facial abrasions, a fractured jaw, and a full-thickness upper lip laceration with associated tissue loss.

The lip laceration required plastic surgery, and a tooth splint was needed following a dental assessment. She required outpatient care for 29 days.

In another case, a 15-year-old boy fell off an e-scooter that he got for Christmas on a main road. He was unsupervised and was not wearing a helmet. He suffered abrasions to his forehead, nose, chin, and right cheek. He also fractured a tooth and hurt his right knee.

Separately, a 13-year-old girl suffered abrasions to her left cheek, chin and nose when she fell off an e-scooter in a woodland area. She was supervised by a parent and was wearing a helmet.

The authors of the study, which was published in the latest issue of the Irish Medical Journal, noted that e-scooters had become a popular Christmas gift in recent years. They welcomed legislation introduced last year that restricted their use.

“The increasing use of e-scooters globally has resulted in a rise in related injuries,” they wrote, noting that a previous study had recorded 147 e-scooter injuries at a single emergency department in Dublin over 12 months.

They said the most concerning feature observed in the cases was the age of the patients, all of whom were under 16 and had received the vehicles as Christmas presents.

The authors said the report should raise awareness of the risk associated with e-scooter use in children, adding that the impact of legislative change in Ireland in this area remains to be seen.