As more people get around on electric scooters, e-bikes and hoverboards, more riders are landing in emergency rooms, according to a new report from the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Micromobility injuries increased 21% in 2022 compared with a year earlier, continuing a trend that has averaged a 23% increase in injuries annually since 2017, the federal agency said.
“We’re trying to get to the heart of most of those injuries,” CPSC Executive Director Jason Levine said Thursday at the Micromobility America conference in Richmond, Calif.
Emergency room visits related to micromobility devices were almost three times higher last year than in 2017 when the CPSC first began conducting its annual micromobility study. It is unclear whether the increase in injuries is related to greater numbers of people using such devices or if the rate of injury is increasing.
“We don’t have good fidelity on the details of that,” Levine said, adding that the CPSC will fine tune its research methodology at the start of 2024 with a new category that distinguishes between pedal bicycle and e-bike injuries resulting in emergency room visits.
Released this week, the CPSC’s newest micromobility report found that almost half of the e-bike injuries (46%) it has catalogued since 2017 occurred in 2022. While injuries resulting from e-scooters increased 22% last year, hoverboard injuries decreased 26%.
Women were more injured than men riding hoverboards, the report found. Men experienced more injuries riding e-bikes and e-scooters.
Children 14 years and younger and Black consumers were overrepresented in the injury data. Children less than 14 years of age make up 18% of the U.S. population but accounted for 36% of micromobility injuries. Black consumers represent 13% of the U.S. population but were represented in 29% of micromobility injuries.
The most common injuries from micromobiliity devices were fractures, followed by contusions/abrasions. The most frequently injured body areas were the upper and lower limbs, head and neck.
The CPSC found that most e-scooter and e-bike injuries occurred between May and October, whereas hoverboard injuries happened most often in December and January.
Between 2017 and 2023, the CPSC reported 233 deaths associated with micromobility devices.
The CPSC is currently looking at whether it should begin regulating mechanical issues with e-bikes, since safety standards for components such as brakes were developed in the 1970s for pedal bikes, long before faster electrified models hit the market.
“The brake standard for your old Schwinn probably isn’t going to be as helpful for your new e=bike and the power and the horsepower that it has,” Levine said, adding that it isn’t yet clear whether the CPSC will add such regulations.
To get a better understanding of the safety issues around micromobility devices, Levine said the agency will begin collecting data in a new way that provides more insight into what exactly is causing the increase in injuries and deaths.
When the CPSC first began conducting the annual report in 2017, incidents involving micromobility devices prompted about 36,000 emergency room visits annually. Now, there are more than 90,000 per year between e-bikes, hoverboards and scooters.
Levine said the majority of micromobility injuries involve motor vehicles and e-bikes and e-scooters, “but there’s obviously a rising number of injuries and fatalities involving fire,” Levine said. “That’s something we’re also looking into.”
The CPSC report said it is aware of 19 deaths associated with micromobility device fires between January 1, 2021, and November 28, 2022.
According to New York Fire Department Commissioner Laura Kavanaugh, electric micromobility devices are the No. 1 cause of fires in the city.