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At the annual Epidemiological Service Conference in Atlanta this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention presented the results of research on several health scourges: Legionella, drug-resistant bacterial infections, the dreaded norovirus, and electric scooters.
The dangers posed by each of these threats vary considerably. But they have something in common: they are largely preventable. Avoid poorly maintained spas. Do not undergo weight loss surgery in Mexico. Wash your hands a lot. And, says the CDC, please wear a helmet.
The CDC began to study the public health implications of electric scooters without a dock shortly after the arrival of tiny gear in the streets of Austin, Texas, in April 2018. Transportation agencies and The city's public health department quickly noticed that many people appeared to be dropping the vehicles, so they asked for help to study the problem. The CDC sent four researchers to help launch the first epidemiological survey on the safety of the micromobility revolution. During the 87-day study period, the CDC and the Austin Public Health Agency identified 271 potentially injured riders on an electric scooter and interviewed more than half of them.
Their most striking findings were that 45% of incidents involved head injuries and less than 1% of cyclists wore a helmet. Of the injured, 15% suffered "traumatic brain injury".
The study revealed that during the study period – from September 5 to November 30, 2018 -, a total of 936 110 e-scooter trips were made to Austin, totaling 182,333 hours and 891 121 km of use in e-scooter. Out of 100,000 trips, 20 people were injured.
"This study probably underestimates the prevalence of electric scooter injuries," the study says, as it focused on those who reported their fall. But perhaps he too has indexed to seriousness for the same reason. While only 14% of the wounded were hospitalized, 88% were seen in an emergency room and almost half reported a serious injury.
Among the injured, the lack of experience may have played a determining role: nearly a third of them were novice motorcyclists and more than 60% had used a scooter nine times or less. "Maybe it's not surprising: it's a new technology. They do not know him well. they never did, "said Jeff Taylor, Austin's chief epidemiologist. "It's like the first time you remove the training wheels from your bike." This suggests that scooter safety rates will improve over time as more riders improve their skills.
Better preparation would help too. Although 60% of those surveyed said they had reviewed the safety instructions incorporated into the application, "another injury prevention strategy is to explore training on how to use the scooter safely," he said. said co-author Laurel Harduar Morano, a member of the CDC National Institute for Occupational. Safety and health.
The researchers found that other vehicles were not the most important factor in this type of accident. Cars and trucks kill 40,000 pedestrians a year (and killed a biker and a pedestrian in a week in DC last month). But in Austin, only 16% of incidents involved cars (hitting them, avoiding them, etc.).
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More critical was the state of the roads. Half of those surveyed said that infrastructure problems, such as potholes and pavement cracks, contributed to their spills. Together, downtown Austin and the University of Texas at Austin were the most affected sites. One third of the runners were injured on the sidewalks, while 55% crashed in the streets.
The hysteria of public health related to the safety of scooters tends to accentuate after the release of this type of reports. Cycling accidents also send many riders to emergencies, but as they are no longer technical novelties, they attract much less attention than scooters. When Portland, Oregon, conducted its own badysis on scooter users in the city, they seemed to confirm the inadequacy, finding that bikes were involved in more trips to the gym. emergency that the scooters during the same four-month period.
"For us, success is when we have zero people with illness. It's the same with scooter injuries.
But these comparisons, say Harduar Morano, are "apples and oranges." Scooters are often used for short trips – in Austin, city data show that the average distance traveled was less than one kilometer – while bikers are longer on the roads. Since they have existed for longer, the user base is also much larger.
"The time spent in these vehicles and the risk of injury if it is longer for bikes than for scooters," said Harduar Morano. "So the comparison is not there."
Even before the publication of the study this week, Texas lawmakers have weighed legislation to regulate scooters in all cities, citing them as a danger and a nuisance. On Wednesday, the state Senate approved a bill banning access to sidewalks and setting the minimum age required at age 16. This bill has been transferred to the House.
"The more we share these results, the more it will help all groups – the [scooter] companies in particular, transport departments, state health departments, recognizing and identifying the pathways they can use to prevent injury, "Taylor said. "We do not want cases of measles, no sarcoidosis. For us, success is when we have zero people with illness. It's the same with scooter injuries.
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