Yup, e-scooters are dangerous, study confirms – especially since nobody wears helmets

A new study tracking injuries from riding e-scooters confirms what we all knew: electric scooters can be dangerous as hell. 

Also, nobody wears helmets. And these vehicles go as fast as 15 mph.  

A study published in the JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) Network Open on Friday observed e-scooter riding in the Los Angeles area (the birthplace of e-scooter sharing) for about a year from Sep. 1, 2017 through Aug. 31, 2018. In that time period, about 250 people ended up in the emergency room.

The most common injuries were to people's heads. More than 40 percent of incidents, involving 100 people, resulted in some sort of head injury. Five people had serious bleeding in the brain from a scooter crash. These weren't just cuts and bruises: two riders were sent to the ICU. Read more...