In recent years, the number of people who use electric scooters as a means of transport has increased and, with it, the number of accidents. Although the traffic regulations for this type of transport require the mandatory use of a helmet and a maximum speed of 25 kilometers per hour, the reality is that many users do not comply with them.
Also, sometimes neither the scooter drivers nor the pedestrians know exactly where they should circulate. The regulations require electric scooters to circulate on urban roads and within them, on the road or bike lane, never on the sidewalk.
However, hospitals often receive injured people caused by accidents with this type of transport. This is the case of the José Molina Orosa Hospital, where, according to the traumatologist Luis Fernando Robledo, "several cases arrive per week in relation to scooters".
Serious accidents mainly suffered by young people
Many of these cases become serious because they do not have the necessary protection for safety. "Some of them require admission and others surgery," says Robledo.
Also, the type of patients who come to Molina Orosa are usually mostly young people. "There are high-energy trauma injuries that usually occur in serious car accidents and are not normally seen with scooters or similar vehicles, and they are severe injuries that leave sequelae," explains the doctor.
The type of fractures they face in Traumatology are of the lower limbs such as ankles, tibia and femur. Also traumatic brain injuries and fractures in hands and arms.
A recent boom
The increase in accidents with this type of vehicle is relatively recent. "Since the rental of electric scooters began through mobile applications, patients began to arrive with injuries due to their use, but during this year the number of injuries for this reason has become even more acute," declares the traumatologist.
Regarding the frequency, the arrivals of injured people due to accidents with electric scooters are frequent, every week. "We have been months with almost one serious weekly case of accident with electric scooters and they are more frequent now than some time ago," says Robledo.
Safety, the tool to combat accidents
As in any vehicle, and even more so in a two-wheeled vehicle, protection is vital. The use of a helmet is crucial to avoid accidents as serious as the one that occurred in early September in Mácher, where a young man who was riding a scooter on the road died after being hit by a car and suffering a traumatic brain injury.
"Protection and controlling the speed is very important to avoid these accidents, but also awareness because these vehicles reach great speed and are also not regulated," advises the doctor.
In addition, there is also an open debate about the incorrect use that is given to it and the minimum age necessary to handle these vehicles. "In our view, it should be mandatory to have a special driving permit to handle these electric scooters," he says.
