Pediatricians are urging better tracking of e-scooter and e-bike injuries after a report shows a “significant number” of severe injuries and deaths among youth who used them last year.
The report, released by the Canadian Paediatric Surveillance Program (CPSP), showed data from a survey of pediatricians in 2025. It showed 48 cases of serious injuries or deaths reported. These included 26 cases of hospitalizations lasting more than two days and 12 ICU admissions. There were nine other cases that the report said could not be classified.
But Dr. Daniel Rosenfield said the data showed 10 deaths from personal powered micromobility devices (PPMD) incidents, which he said is some of the first data of youth fatalities aside from media and police reports.
“People don’t associate these devices with fatalities, right,” Rosenfield said in an interview. “As the usage of these devices goes up, which we can tell by the number of kids coming in with minor or moderate injuries, then the number of fatalities will also go up.”
E-scooters were the most used device reported among the injuries or deaths.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information showed similar data, with 53 injuries requiring hospitalizations among youth ages five to 17 between 2023 and 2024.
Among the most common injuries found in the CPSP’s data were to the head at 47 per cent and limbs at 40 per cent.
“So the majority of severely injured people are due to head injuries and remember these aren’t injuries that you can walk away from. These people will often have a permanent disability,” Rosenfield said.
Youth aged 10 to 15 were 42 per cent of the cases reported by pediatricians or emergency physicians, with 18 per cent among those five to nine years old. According to the data, the average age for incidents was 10 to 12.
Rosenfield said the issue is complex, but doesn’t blame government for a patchwork of rules surrounding the operation of e-bikes and e-scooters by youth.
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In Ontario, Prince Edward Island and British Columbia, youth must be 16 or older to ride a standard e-bike, but other provinces have lower limits such as 15 or 14, or none at all. Quebec has an age limit of 18, but those with a Class 6D licence for mopeds or scooters can ride starting at 14.
For e-scooters, Ontario, P.E.I., Saskatchewan and B.C., again, have firm age limits of 16, but others like Quebec and Nova Scotia set it at 14.
Alberta and Saskatchewan ban e-scooters altogether from public roads, but municipal bylaws allow for their public use in those specific towns and cities like Edmonton or Saskatoon. Both provinces don’t have a specific age limit, leaving it up to municipalities.
The one common factor in many provinces regarding the devices is whether youth or adult, a helmet is required.
Though he doesn’t blame governments, Rosenfield said standardization of rules across the country would be helpful. In the interim, though, what should be focused on is education, enforcement and engineering, he said.
“There’s no amount of regulations that will make these safe and no amount of educational campaigns to get everyone to be aware of the potential risks,” Rosenfield said. “We have to really start at the absolute top and design a safer vehicle and create standards that mandate that across the country.”
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Amid calls for strengthened safety regulations, a few provinces say they’re taking new action or are considering potential changes.
Nova Scotia announced last week that it plans to ban children under 14 from riding electric bikes this fall.
Alberta says it is amending its Traffic Safety Act to “build a modernized and safer transportation system.”
“As part of these amendments, Alberta is considering a provincial framework to support the safe and consistent use of personal micromobility devices, such as e-Scooters and similar small devices, where municipalities enforce and choose to allow them,” a spokesperson for the Department of Transportation told Global News in an email.
Newfoundland and Labrador Minister of Government Services Mike Goosney said in an email that the province is working with other jurisdictions and safety partners to determine the “best approach” to regulating the devices.
“Public consultations will soon be starting, and this feedback will help inform legislative amendments that I intend to bring forward for the fall sitting of the House of Assembly,” Goosney said.
Global News reached out to Transport Canada to inquire if the federal government has considered working with provinces and territories in finding a standard across the country.
Police in Toronto have also launched a two-week enforcement campaign focused on the vehicles, as collisions involving micromobility devices have increased. According to police, there were 514 reported micromobility-related collisions involving youth and adults in Toronto this year so far, including two deaths involving e-scooters.
“Through our enforcement and education efforts, we’re working to improve awareness and encourage safer use of these devices for everyone on our roads, sidewalks and pathways,” a spokesperson for the Toronto Police Service said.
That education is still important, with Rosenfield saying if you’re going to ride these, wear a helmet, don’t ride at excessive speed, and with e-scooters, don’t put two people on one device.
“That’s not an accident, that was completely preventable and predictable,” he said.
—with files from Global News’ Katherine Ward
Right… and how many children died in car accidents in 2025? Stats Canada shows over 36,000 people died in car accidents in Canada last year
Stop lumping E-Bikes in with those garbage stand on e-kick scooters. E-Bikes are regulated to 16 and over they may have stupidly lowered it to 14. Stand on E-kick scooters have no tegulation at all. Parents that aren’t very swift are buying these fast machines for there kids 12 and under which us way too low of age to ride these on the road or bike lanes
this is so ridicous look at the 1000,s bicycle riders n hand carts that wear no helmets go through stop signs, cut people off insist on riding in middle of road it is certainly not just scooters, maybe police should monitor all un licensed mods of transportation, not just scooters
These are motor vehicles, does not matter gas or electric it is a motor vehicle. That being said all operators of these things on roadways MUST have insurance just like I do to drive my car. What about pedestrians if you get hit by one of these things and are seriously injured and loose time off work who pays for that? What too bad it was an accident? Again, people who use them MUST carry insurance if not ban them completely.
Look at Walter Lis at 7:42am. The resident advocate of everything under the sun
i agree way to dangerous.. keep the kids inside wrapped in bubble wrap and they will be safer!! where’s the stats on how many more e scooters are on the road this year then last and year before that. Any statistic can be manipulated to drive your point home.. why not report both sides for a change and let the people decide if they think it good or bad instead of telling us how we are supposed to feel and then writing an article to prove you right.
Oh well. Life’s a beach, then you die
In a recent article the Vancouver police flat out said they will not be enforcing the legal requirement to wear a helmet on these scooters (it’s old news that the same requirement for bike riders has been ignored for years) . So rules of the road, basic precautions, age limits are just as likely to be ignored. There are reasons why e-scooters have been banned in other cities.
Is anyone really surprised by this. People are riding these things totally irresponsibly adults and children alike. They ride on these things pavements with no helmets at speeds that can cause major injuries. It’s about time licensing and insurance to be brought in for drivers of these vehicles. Parents are buying these e.scooters and allowing children under 16 to ride them without supervision even though it’s against the law. More children will die if something isn’t done. Again governments approving something before all the rules and regulations are in place and the rules that are there are not being enforced
That’s it? Use of these modes of transport is very prevalent in my area, and I’ll tell you: the kids on them are complete idiots. Ignoring not just the rules of the road, but plain common sense. None of these scooters, e-bikes, mopeds, what-have-you, are regulated; it’s a free-for-all on the roads. But hey, play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
I want to comment on a story reported this morning about trucks and pedestrian safety. The cause is usually not the truck, but the lack of attention by the pedestrian. We have created a culture where pedestrians seem to think they can throw out common sense because they have the right of way. How many just cross streets now without looking first or stop looking at their cell phone. The fault of incidents are not the trucks all the time, pedestrian actions is the real problem.
Lack of self preservation to road safety in pedestrians has vacated the brain!
These need to be removed completely.
Kids are renting these, they don’t know or follow road rules.
Probably because they’re using these on the road but not following the laws of the road. Darting out into traffic, not stopping at stop signs. Absolutely zero enforcement. The deaths will continue, and get worse.
no helment , riding double, age law doesn’t matter. Stops signs are for cars? The rules don’t matter at all, it’s a free for all? One e-bike here looks more like a motorcycle? we need these off the road…very dangerous
Around 7,500 cyclists (non-powered) are seriously injured in Canada each year, according to figures commonly cited by the Canadian Automobile Association (drawing on Statistics Canada data).
And the media is screeching about 48 powered cycling injuries???
Good. Thinning the herd.
Lmao
Still trying to manufacture a controversy