(Montreal) The Montreal Children’s Hospital (MCH) is urging parents to be cautious about their children using electric scooters. Over the past three months, the hospital’s Trauma Centre has treated seven patients who suffered injuries related to these types of scooters.
In 2022, 12 children were treated for this type of injury during the year, as well as eight in 2023.
“The year is just beginning, I’m pretty sure we’re going to get to maybe 20 this year,” said Glenn Keays, a trauma researcher at the Children’s Trauma Center. “We’re not done seeing them, I think it’s going to increase.”
The hospital expects to treat more children due to the increase in popularity of electric scooters, as the Quebec government has allowed them to be used on roads in July 2023.
Although current regulations only allow children 14 and older to use this type of transportation, about half of the cases of patients with e-scooter-related injuries who have visited the MCH are younger.
“We’ve seen some that are three years old, some that are five years old, some that are seven years old, so it’s not something that’s limited to young teenagers,” Keays said, saying that this category of micro-mobility injuries also includes other forms of transportation, such as electric skateboards or electric unicycles.
“For children, it is mainly the electric scooter that brings us the most cases,” the researcher said.
Surprising fact: many injured people who go to the HEM were not wearing helmets at the time of their accident, even though Quebec regulations also require the wearing of helmets.
“It was surprising to see that we had about 60 per cent who told us they wore helmets, so there were 40 per cent who told us they didn’t wear helmets. It hasn’t really gotten into the population yet, even though the law requires it,” Keays said.
“The injuries are mainly fractures, fractures to the upper limbs. But we still have 20% of head injuries,” he said.
Additionally, 63 percent of the injured children who came to the MCH were boys. “Which surprises me, because if you look at regular scootering, skateboarding, cycling, it’s about 50-50 percent girls and boys, whereas this is really something that’s more of an interest to boys,” Keays said.
The researcher therefore recommends that parents be vigilant, as well as the wearing of helmets for children aged 14 and over who can use an electric scooter. These young people must also follow traffic laws.
What explains why there are more injuries to children on an e-scooter than on a bicycle? For example, if a person hits a pothole on a bicycle, it is easier to swing than standing on a scooter, where a person can be thrown forward, Keays said.
“We must not forget that there is a question of weight. A 200-pound teenager who goes at 30 kilometers per hour and then falls, the little one who weighs just, say, 50 pounds, he will go much further,” he added.