Emergency doctor gives warning in wake of growing number of e-scooter injuries

Dr. Steven Friedman, an emergency physician in Toronto, provides advice about e-scooters in the wake of an increase in hospitalizations in Canada.

An emergency physician is recommending children not ride e-scooters and calls on adult riders to wear helmets, as well as slow down while riding, amid an increase in hospitalizations over the past year.

“These are vehicles so no one under 16 should be riding them. It’s tragic that we’re seeing small children have bad injuries. These are fast, potentially dangerous vehicles,” Dr. Steven Friedman, a Toronto-based emergency physican, said in an interview with CTV Your Morning last week.

A July report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information showed a 32 per cent increase in reported e-scooter hospitalizations over one year, rising to 498 from 375.

Friedman said hospitals are seeing many types of injuries, including bleeding brains, smashed faces, as well as broken skulls, ribs, knees, pelvis and elbows.

While micromobility devices like e-scooters, bicycles and electronic bikes have become more popular and less expensive, appealing to people in congested cities, he added, municipalities have no control on who can buy them. However, they can control who operates them.

Rules for e-scooter riders differ between provinces. For instance, riders must be at least 16 in Ontario and helmets are required for anyone under 18 in the province. In British Columbia, riders must be at least 16 and must wear an approved safety helmet. In Nova Scotia, riders must be at least 14 years old and helmets are required for everyone.

His warning comes as Toronto police have launched an e-scooter and e-bike safety enforcement campaign. The campaign was sparked by a recommendation by Toronto city council to improve public awareness of safety involving the vehicles.

Watch the video above for the full interview.

With files from CTV Toronto’s Codi Wilson