Bristol: E-scooter injuries 'costing NHS £1k per patient'

The Voi e-scooter trials cover a number of English cities

Injuries caused by e-scooters cost the NHS £1,000 per patient on average in one city, it has been claimed.

A new report by transport safety charity Pacts shows 90 e-scooter riders were treated in A&E units in Bristol in four weeks between May and June.

The city is one of several with ongoing e-scooter trials, along with London, Liverpool and Birmingham.

Voi, which runs many official hire schemes in the UK, said safety was its "number one" priority.

The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (Pacts) has been investigating private e-scooter safety across the UK for its report "The Safety of Private E-scooters in the UK".

Under current UK law, privately-owned e-scooters, of which Pacts estimates there are 500,000 in the UK, are classed as motor vehicles and are illegal to use on roads or in public places without insurance and registration.

But in 2020 the government authorised official trial rental schemes of e-scooters and some 50 local authorities have introduced them.

Privately-owned e-scooters are illegal to use on UK roads without insurance and registration

Pacts estimates private companies have distributed about 20,000 of them across the UK, including in cities such as London, Nottingham, Derby, Portsmouth, Oxford, Cambridge, Coventry, Sunderland and Southampton.

It said exact figures of e-scooter accidents were hard to find because of the way injuries are recorded at individual hospitals, but "casualty numbers are growing and the severity of some casualties is high".

In the first 10 months of 2021 Pacts found nine deaths involving e-scooters and more than 300 casualties.

"Hospital emergency departments and major trauma centres are treating seriously injured patients, many with head injuries," it said.

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In the summer Avon and Somerset Police said the majority of riders using e-scooters in Bristol were obeying the rules of the road.

According to the Pacts report, in a four-week period between May and June, 90 patients were seen by A&E departments in Bristol for injuries involving e-scooters.

Voi scooters are available for hire in Bristol, Bath and South Gloucestershire

Of those people, 96% were the e-scooter rider, and 80% of that group had been riding hired scooters.

Pact does acknowledge that people riding privately-owned scooters may not give full details because of fears of prosecution, meaning the data might not be 100% accurate.

The majority of those injured (71%) fell rather than collided with a pedestrian or other vehicle.

About a fifth came in with head injuries and three patients had either a traumatic brain injury, haemorrhage or a fractured skull.

Although Voi, which runs many of the official e-scooter trials in the UK, recommends helmet use, only 7% of those injured were wearing one.

Bristol's mayor Marvin Rees said earlier this year he expected the use of e-scooters to become permanent. in Bristol following a trial.

'Life-changing injuries'

Professor Edd Carlton, a consultant in emergency medicine at North Bristol NHS Trust and an associate professor at the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, told the Pacts report: "Across emergency departments in Bristol over 40 per cent of patients who are treated after e-scooter accidents have fractures, a number also suffer life-changing injuries.

"The average cost of treatment to the NHS for these injuries is nearly £1,000 per patient."

Clifford Evans was injured while riding an e-scooter in Bristol.

He said: "My ankle is very weak. I'm undergoing physiotherapy at the moment, they're trying to build the strength up in it, but it's not easy to build strength up in a part of the body like that.

"It has caused permanent damage and they think I'll end up using a stick."

E-scooters that are part of the trial can be used wherever cycles are permitted

Caroline Leech, major trauma lead at University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust, said: "In our major trauma centre alone we admit at least one e-scooter rider a month with severe injury; mostly serious head and limb injuries.

"Improving e-scooter safety is a priority to reduce the number and severity of injuries requiring hospital admission."

Sarah Gayton, from the National Federation of the Blind of the UK, said she wanted e-scooters banned.

"To be honest, I'm not actually shocked by them [the figures]. I couldn't understand why these figures weren't in the public domain before," she said.

"It just shows you how dangerous they are and the public have not been made aware of this."

Accurate accident reporting

Matthew Pencharz, Voi's Head of Public Policy for UK, Ireland and the Netherlands, said safety was the company's "number one priority".

He said Voi was the first company to introduce number plates on its scooters so incidents could be reported.

"We believe that the introduction of accurate, transparent reporting of accidents, better rider education, investment in better parking and riding infrastructure, as well as a level playing field with safer and appropriate regulation for private e-scooters, which are currently illegal in public spaces, will increase overall road safety," he said.

""Voi believes the future of our cities is accessing zero-emission, lightweight alternatives to polluting motor vehicles; however, this can only be achieved with strict provisions in place requiring private users to be more accountable."