Doctors at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children say they are seeing a growing number of children seriously injured in e-scooter crashes, with some suffering traumatic injuries and complex fractures.
“It’s been exponential really,” Dr. Suzanne Beno, a pediatric emergency physician and co-medical director of SickKids’ trauma program, said about the influx of children with injuries.
Bono said e-scooter injuries reached a “tipping point” in 2024 and have doubled every year since.
“This year, we’re seeing several, three to five, e-scooter injuries a week at SickKids.”
While some children arrive with minor injuries, Beno said more are being rushed to the hospital’s trauma bay after high-speed crashes or collisions with vehicles.
“We see a lot of patients with head injuries, thoracic injuries, some spine injuries, some abdominal injuries and a lot of fractures,” Beno said.
“A lot of these injuries are requiring operative care, intensive care or prolonged rehabilitation.”
Severe injuries becoming routine
For Dr. Carolyn Rutten, a pediatric emergency radiologist at SickKids, reviewing scans from e-scooter crashes has become a routine part of overnight shifts.
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“At this point in the summer, they’re almost daily,” Rutten said.
She said the fractures she sees are often far more severe than those from typical playground accidents.
“With e-scooters we see more severe fractures,” Rutten said. “The fractures are often more severely displaced than they would be for playground trauma.”
The hospital is also seeing an increasing number of traumatic brain injuries.
Rutten said children can suffer skull fractures and bleeding inside the brain that can create dangerous pressure, sometimes requiring surgeons to remove part of the skull to save the child’s life.
When asked whether children should be riding e-scooters, she replied, “I really wish they weren’t.”
Long recoveries
Dr. Joshua Ramjist, a pediatric general surgeon and trauma medical co-director, said many families don’t realize how serious the injuries can be.
“They function like any other motorized vehicle and the injury patterns we see as a result of them resemble those of high-speed motor vehicle accidents,” he said.
Ramjist said many of the injuries involve multiple parts of the body, including the head, chest and abdomen, often leaving children with long recoveries.
“It’s more than just broken bones,” he said. “It’s multi-organ injuries.”
Some children require lengthy surgeries, repeated operations, time in intensive care and weeks or even months of rehabilitation before they can return to normal activities, Ramjist said.
As e-scooters become more common, Beno said prevention needs to go beyond simply encouraging children to wear helmets.
She said stronger public education, clearer regulations, better enforcement and safer infrastructure are all needed to reduce the number of serious injuries.
Beno also said many parents don’t realize that privately owned e-scooters can travel much faster than rental models.
Rutten said SickKids researchers have documented crashes involving speeds of up to 50 kilometres per hour.
“The higher the speed, the higher impact the trauma is and the more severe it is on the body,” Rutten said.
Beno said children under 16 should not be riding e-scooters because many lack the physical and cognitive skills needed to safely operate them.
“It’s tragic because it’s so preventable,” she said.
Anyone driving these days could see this coming. These mostly unregulated vehicles (which is what they are) are very often driven by children with abandon, and often no helmet. This area needs regulation and they also need to be insured.
Who Cares, government of Canada allows them into the country.
Are you sure that “exponential” is the right term? A doubling of injuries is nowhere near an exponential increase.
I agree that the rise is untenable, but don’t excessively overstate the increase. It diminishes your message
I dont take medical or parenting advice from the media.
Meh, weeds out the id*ots. Leave it alone. Let em ride with their hair in the wind. Their choice. Bill the parents for every stitch and hour in emergency and stay in the hospital. If it is scooter related and no helmet, to bad no coverage. The parents end up with a veg for the rest of their lives, so be it.
Sad price to pay to finally get legislation and enforcement.
Hi Could you please add some stats to verify this? I am positive there is an increase due to e-scooters but just declaring it isn’t good “News” and Global should know this. I also think further issuing tickets to parents should become a very high priority as they are the ones that are the source of these victims having these e-scooters. I saw first hand and even questioned about a helmet yet the parent let the kid ride off as the kid said “no” to my suggestion of a helmet. The hospital Emergency doesn’t need victims from “stupid or ignorant” ( the terms are used for lack of other words to use) guardians. Guardians referring to any adult that gives a child an e-bike. Maybe the Special Constables, that are proposed to be expanded in London Ontario, would take a larger roll in issuing tickets, confiscating e-bikes ridden by minors along with a fine. I also believe anyone on these bikes should have mandatory Helmets no matter their age just like a motorcycle. There should also be a course that is mandatory before a person can leave any establishment that they are purchasing from that shows rules of the road, proper speeds, the highway act of where they can be ridden, and all pertain able information before they can get a certificate that says they have read it answered the test at the end. I am sure some businesses would try to find ways of just offering the answers so tests questions would change along with how they are worded. These things are great for getting around but more legislation needs to be done. They are severely harming our kids and some will be killed.
Even with those things, there’s never a shortage of speed showoffs.
Solutions are obvious, it’s getting them implemented and enforced that’s the problem. Seems those elected, as usual, are doing their best to ignore the problem, which is their forte.
Just ban kids and adults from e-bikes. Simple solution.
No safety equipment, no skill, pay no attention, ride wherever they please, high speed.
Hey, what could possibly go wrong.