Missouri hospitals see spike in electric scooter injuries

Kansas City (Mo.) emergency rooms are seeing a jump in electric scooter-related injuries after companies Lime and Bird dropped the vehicles in the city this summer, KBIA reports.

Kansas City ERs join other U.S. hospitals seeing more scooter-related injuries after the arrival of e-scooters. Salt Lake City-based University of Utah Health saw a 161 percent increase in ER visits involving scooters this year after comparing its statistics with the same three-month period of 2017.

Aaron Kaus, MD, an emergency room physician at Kansas City, Mo.-based Saint Luke's Hospital, said injuries most often involve the face and head, and the speed of e-scooters also contributes to patients' injuries.

"I've heard from ones who, more or less, lose control of the scooters when they hit either a pothole or a crack, or transition from the sidewalk to the street," Dr. Kaus told KBIA.

In a statement to KBIA, a spokesperson for scooter company Bird said the company restricts the maximum speed of its vehicles and requires riders to upload a driver's license confirming they are 18 or older. Every Bird scooter also has safety instructions.

 

 

 

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