Electric scooter related injuries in Calgary emergency departments.

Abstract

Electric scooters (e-scooters) have contributed to a rise in injury burden and emergency department (ED) utilization since their local introduction 3years ago. This study is a novel collaboration between the City of Calgary's Department of Transportation and emergency medicine researchers to better understand the nature and frequencies of e-scooter injuries. It quantifies the incidence and characteristics of e-scooter related injuries treated in Calgary EDs/urgent carecentres (UCCs). Administrative data from electronic medical records of all patients presenting to Adult Emergency Departments and one Urgent Care Centre in Calgary with an e-scooter related injury between July 8, 2019, and Oct 1, 2019, and May 22, 2020, and September 30, 2020 were collected. Additional data were obtained from paper EMS reports. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize injury-specific variables and comparisons were drawn between ED visits for other transportation modalities. 1272 ED/urgent care visits were attributed to an e-scooter related incident. The majority of incidents occurred between 20:00 and 24:00 (47%). Most injuries occurred to the lower limb (54.8%), followed by facial injuries (42.9%). The overwhelming majority of injuries happened to the e-scooter drivers (97.6%). E-scooter injuries made up approximately 15% of all trauma presentations to Calgary area adult EDsduring the e-scooter season and 1 in 1400 e-scooter rides resulted in a visit to an ED/UCC. Traumatic ED visits related to e-scooter use represent an increasing burden of preventable injuries. This study identified specific characteristics to focus future education and public policy efforts on.