UCLA researchers have found that people involved in electric scooter accidents are sometimes injured badly enough — from fractures, dislocated joints and head injuries — to require treatment in an emergency department.
The researchers examined data from 249 people who were treated at the emergency departments of UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica, and Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center between Sept. 1, 2017, and Aug. 31, 2018. The study found that about one-third of them arrived by ambulance, an indication of the severity of their injuries.
West Los Angeles is the epicenter of the electric scooter phenomenon — Santa Monica was one of the first U.S. cities in which the scooters were widely used — but the vehicles are now available in more than 60 cities nationwide and about a half dozen locations outside of the U.S.
“There are thousands of riders now using these scooters, so it’s more important than ever to understand their impact on public health,” said Dr. Tarak Trivedi, the study’s lead author, an emergency physician and scholar in the National Clinician Scholars Program at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
Source: Science Daily
