SAN FRANCISCO – A 77-year-old man was killed after being hit by an electric scooter while crossing a street in downtown San Francisco in July, the type of serious scooter-pedestrian collision the city’s police department calls “uncommon.’’
Other types of e-scooter accidents that result in a trip to the emergency room, however, are becoming all too frequent across the nation.
The growing popularity of electric scooters – easily accessible for commuters to reach their final destination or tourists to enjoy sightseeing – has been accompanied by skyrocketing numbers of injuries, typically to the riders and at times to others in their way.
A 2023 report by the Consumer Product Safety Commission revealed that from 2017 – when the devices were first introduced at scale – through 2022, the U.S. recorded 360,800 ER visits related to e-bikes, e-scooters and hoverboards, known collectively as micromobility vehicles.
Of those visits, 169,300 were linked to the scooters, or 47%. By comparison, ER trips stemming from e-bike accidents added up to 53,200, or less than 15%.
