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An unprecedented study of wanderless electric scooter injuries revealed that most incidents were preventable, and Austin city officials now hope to use their findings to inform future policy.
The City's health and transportation departments worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to review 271 potentially scooter-related injury reports filed from September 5 to November 30, 2018. The study n & # 39; 39, however, confirmed that 190 cases involving motorcyclists, one involved a pedestrian and one involved a cyclist. The others were identified as injured when using a scooter, a moped or a three-wheeled petrol device, or n? have not used any device at all, said Jeff Taylor, epidemiologist at Austin Public Health.
"In fact, this study has also proven that we need to be more specific in our language when we are recording data: a scooter is not just a scooter.We mean something very specific," said Robert Spillar. , director of the Austin Transportation Department, said Thursday.
The CDC said the study had revealed "a high proportion of injuries related to electronic scooters involved in potentially avoidable risk factors, such as lack of helmet use or the interaction of a motorcycle. motor vehicle ". City officials also said that nearly half of the documented head injuries could have been prevented.
The study drew data from Austin-Travis County EMS incident reports, as well as information from nine hospitals in the area, as well as interviews with individuals. injured. Taylor said it was important to interview the wounded so that the data could be more accurate.
Among the results:
• 20 out of 100,000 scooter trips were injured and most were novice motorcyclists.
• 48% were between 18 and 29 years old. Researchers recommend targeting future educational materials for this age group.
• 39% of injuries occurred between 18:00 and 18:00. and 6 hours
• 29% told researchers that they had been drinking before riding.
• Only one out of 190 injured riders was wearing a helmet.
• More than half of the runners were injured on the street and one-third were injured on the sidewalk.
• More than a third reported that speed had contributed to their fall.
Having more accurate data on scooters and their impact on Austin residents could help inform policy discussions in the future, said Dr. Christopher Ziebell, Medical Director of the Emergency Department at Dell Seton Medical Center. The hospital does not have a consistent method of recording the number and type of scooter injuries that enter the emergency room, he said.
Since May 2018, the Dell Seton Medical Center has seen at least 97 people who needed to be hospitalized with serious injuries, Ziebell said. These include people who will spend their lives in a retirement home because of head injuries, he said. Others suffered major fractures that required surgical procedures and one person died.
"I do not see a lot of cyclists, not a lot of shooters or stabbing, I think that would be a place where we would like to attract public attention," Ziebell said.
One to two minor wounds, including scrapes or ankle sprains, continue to pass through the emergency room daily, he said. Hospital counts do not include those who may be treated at home.
"I think the last public incident of this magnitude took place when the bad lots of K2 entered the street and we had an ambulance after the arrival of it," Ziebell said. "It's kind of the only other example I can think of where something happened in the audience and we felt like that in emergencies."
For a period comparable to that studied by the CDC – four months in 2018, between May 7 and September 6 – the Texas Department of Transportation found that in Austin 1,945 people had been injured in a vehicle and eight had been killed; 105 were injured on motorcycles and five were killed; 60 were injured with bicycles. According to the city of Austin, the number of scooter injuries during this period was 28,
Reducing the number of scooter-related injuries could start with messages and education, Ziebell said. Patients told him that they thought getting on a scooter would be a fun and fast thing, but they eventually hit a rock and crashed.
"I still hear patients coming in and saying," I did not know anything about it, "he said, his patients are between 20 and 70 years old.
The study found that 16% of incidents in the city involved a vehicle and Ziebell said he saw some. By far, bikers can look like pedestrians walking on the road, he said. Motorists then think that they have more time to cross or to turn around than they actually do, he said.
"I think as long as we are not used to having these things in our vision, we will not have trained our eyes to look for them," Ziebell said.
It is possible that the study will inform a scooter user's order that Austin City Council is expected to adopt this month. The order would give Austin officers the power to compel unsafe scooter drivers, set parking requirements and limit the use of a phone when using it. from a scooter.
The order was to be re-examined in March, but a vote on it was postponed because of the study, Spillar said.
Statesman reporter Mark D. Wilson contributed to this article.
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