Stony Brook Children’s Hospital reported a 900% increase in trauma admissions related to e-bikes and e-scooters over a two-year period. That includes kids with minor injuries but also serious head and brain trauma, and even death.
"It's phenomenal," said Dr. Richard Scriven, a pediatric trauma surgeon at Stony Brook Children's Hospital.
“I've been taking care of trauma patients for almost 40 years, and I've never seen such an explosion in the amount of admissions that we've seen over the last few years with these micromobility or e-scooters and e-bikes," he said Friday at a joint news conference with Walk Safe Long Island and Stony Brook University.
Doctors, advocates and law enforcement officials said the increase is due in part to public confusion over where the micromobility devices are allowed, who can operate one, and what the rules are.
"If you're driving on New York State roadways, you have to go through a basic driver's course, you have to get a permit, you have to learn the rules of the road, yet we're putting kids onto roadways on these electric bikes," said Gerard Hardy, Chief of Patrol at the Suffolk County Police Department.
"They're sharing the roadways with the motoring public, and they have not been educated on how the rules work. So they're cutting in front of cars; they don't know about right of way. And you see this, and it results in tragedy day after day,” Hardy said.
Among the possible solutions: tighter state regulations, stricter local laws, and better public outreach to both parents and kids.
"Enforcement goes so far, but it's really education that changes how people think and creates compliance," Hardy said, likening the public awareness campaign to the push to require seat belts in cars.
