AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Kids love e-bikes and e-scooters. But the injuries from accidents on these e-vehicles are on the rise, and they can be much worse than the typical cuts and scrapes from regular bikes and scooters. Pediatric surgeon Cornelia Griggs and pediatric trauma program manager Caitlin Coit, both with Mass General Brigham for Children, have written about this for The Boston Globe and join us now. Good morning.
CAITLIN COIT: Good morning.
CORNELIA GRIGGS: Good morning.
RASCOE: And so Truveta, a health data and analytics firm, looked at injury rates for kids on e-bikes and e-scooters. They found that there's been a 7.5-fold increase in injury rates since 2023. Caitlin Coit, does that track with what you've seen at your hospital?
COIT: Yes. Absolutely. The injuries are going up, and I would say what we've seen is maybe - perhaps even more than that. This year alone, we've seen more than we saw in the entire 12 months of last year. It's multiple times a week that we're seeing patients in our emergency rooms and being admitted for injuries related to e-bikes and e-scooters.
RASCOE: And, Dr. Griggs, like, what kind of injuries are we talking about here?
GRIGGS: Yeah. The injuries that we see on these e-vehicles - and I'm so glad that you called them e-vehicles, because they are. They're vehicles that we're giving to children. The injuries are of a much more severe degree than the cuts and scrapes and bruises that we see from regular pedal-bike injuries. We have seen really severe traumatic brain injuries. We have seen children who get very severe facial fractures because I think one thing that parents and kids and grandparents don't realize is that if you're on an e-bike that's going really fast, you really need to be wearing a full motorcycle helmet that covers all of the structures of the face. We've seen really severe orthopedic fractures, and tragically, we have even seen children die.
RASCOE: Oh. Well, you know, Miss Coit, it's probably important to point out, you know, as tragic as these sound on their own, the injuries aren't just happening to the riders themselves, right?
COIT: That's absolutely right. We're also seeing injuries as a result of people being hit by these vehicles, both from children riding the vehicles and adults riding them inappropriately. I recently saw a 2-year-old who was hit by an e-bike on a playground that was being driven by a 12-year-old. So it's not just kids riding them and getting hurt. It's also kids getting hurt because maybe they're standing on a sidewalk and one comes down and doesn't see them. So yeah. It's becoming quite a big problem.
RASCOE: And so, Dr. Griggs, you mentioned this earlier. But it sounds like the typical protective equipment for bike-riding, like, you know, a bike helmet - it doesn't sound like that's the right gear for e-bikes. Like, what type of gear do you need for an e-bike to really be protected?
GRIGGS: First of all, I want to hesitate to say that I would recommend putting a child of any age on one of these vehicles. And one thing that we are working with Massachusetts legislators for is to have some age restrictions around handing over these vehicles to children because no matter how much safety gear you have, to operate one of these vehicles that's going faster than 15 miles per hour safely, you really have to have the maturity, the judgment and the understanding of the safety rules of the road that we would expect of a driver. And so that's why, as a blanket statement, I really don't recommend e-bikes or e-scooters for children.
However, if you are going to have access to one - and especially for, you know, responsible adults who are using some of these Class 0, Class 1 pedal-assist bikes to safely and, in a green way, commute, which I support - you really want to think about having maximal protective gear. I mean, look at what kids who ride dirt bikes are wearing. They're wearing the equivalent of a full motorcycle helmet, chest pads, elbow pads, often knee pads - full-body gear, with a really strong safety culture around the sport. And I think what's happened is e-bikes and e-scooters have become so quickly and readily available that the safety culture around how to interact with these devices safely hasn't caught up yet.
RASCOE: It sounds like you definitely would support greater regulations when it comes to e-bikes and e-scooters. What type of regulations do you think need to be in place for these e-bikes and e-scooters?
GRIGGS: I would support age restrictions. I don't think children under the age of 16 really belong on these devices. I would support greater regulation around permitting of vehicles that go faster than 15 or 20 miles per hour. There could be potential insurance implications that would make parents think twice about these things. And I absolutely think there should be helmet protection for all riders of these vehicles.
RASCOE: That's Dr. Cornelia Griggs and Caitlin Coit, who work in pediatrics at Mass General Brigham for Children in Boston. Thank you so much for joining us.
GRIGGS: Thanks for having us.
COIT: Thank you for having us. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
