Electric Scooters Blamed For Serious Injuries

Electric scooters are growing in popularity across Oklahoma with both Lime and Bird in Tulsa. But, new research from California shows 1 in 3 people involved in e-scooter accidents are injured badly enough to require emergency room treatment.

Safety Concerns As More Scooters Hit The Roads Around Tulsa 

"A range of different fractures. The wrist, forearm and the ankles. There were a lot of patients who came in with head injuries, fortunately, the majority of them suffered minor concussions, but 5 patients did have bleeding inside the brain," said Dr. Tarak Trivedi of the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.

Tulsans Seem To Like Those New Lime Scooters

The study from Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center looked at emergency room data on nearly 250 e-scooters riders and pedestrians involved in collisions. One scooter company called the report limited and said the number of injuries reported amounts to a small fraction of e-scooter rides.

With so many scooters on the roads in Santa Monica, California the city launched a public safety campaign encouraging riders to have a valid driver's license, only ride on the street, not the sidewalk, and always wear a helmet.

"We found in our study that only 4% of patients are actually wearing a helmet during the time of their injury. While electric scooters are easy fun convenient and incredibly useful, they have to be taken seriously," said Trivedi.

Scooter company Bird says it's committed to working with cities to safely and responsibly embrace e-scooters. And Lime says it's led several safety initiatives including distributing thousands of free helmets to e-scooter riders.