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A Nova Scotia emergency room doctor says, based on injury statistics she has been collecting at Halifax-area hospitals this summer, the province should consider raising the minimum age of e-scooter and e-bike riders even higher than 14.
Dr. Kirstin Weerdenburg is a pediatric emergency physician and trauma team leader at the IWK Health Centre.
Since the end of May, she has been gathering information from the IWK and other emergency departments in the Halifax Regional Municipality on injuries suffered by both children and adults involving e-scooters and e-bikes.
Weerdenburg found that of the 80 patients — including 66 who were under 16 — 20 needed a trauma team activation.
“That’s quite high,” Weerdenburg said. “I think that … speaks to the severity of the types of injuries we’re seeing and how we should be more concerned about these devices, the speeds that they’re going.”
The preliminary data found that the median age of the IWK patients was 13, and the youngest patient was eight years old.
Dr. Kirstin Weerdenburg is a pediatric emergency physician and a trauma team leader at the IWK Health Centre. (Submitted by Dr. Kirstin Weerdenburg)
The study comes as the province plans to take steps this fall to ban children under 14 from riding electric bikes.
Kids under 14 are already banned from using e-scooters. The province introduced a minimum age of 14, as well as a maximum speed of 32 km/h for e-scooters, in 2022.
Some jurisdictions in Canada have set a minimum age of 16 for e-bike or e-scooter riders.
Given the demographics of the injured riders in her study, Weerdenburg advocates for tightening those restrictions further.
“I think we should be considering a higher one,” she said. “I think that shows that we need to be increasing that age limit just for the safety of our population.”
The Halifax study found that most of the injuries were caused by the rider falling off the e-scooter or e-bike, rather than hitting something or being struck.
The head and the face were the most commonly injured parts of the body, and impacts included head injuries, scrapes and cuts. Arm and leg fractures were also common, Weerdenburg said, and the fractures were frequently more significant than simply needing a cast put on.
Most of the riders were on the road at the time of their injury — rather than a sidewalk, bike lane or trail — and most were riding their personal e-scooter or e-bike rather than a rental.
Sixty per cent of the injured riders were male and 40 per cent were female.
Weerdenburg said the preliminary data found “not ideal helmet use,” as only 79 per cent of kids and 43 per cent of adults in the study were wearing helmets.
Advice for parents
She said her message to parents is “consider your child not using an e-scooter, just for their safety — or e-bike as well.”
She said riders should always wear a helmet and proper footwear — not sandals — and only have one rider on a device at a time.
Weerdenburg said that the Halifax statistics don’t necessarily capture all injuries because some people may have chosen not to go to the emergency department for assessment or treatment.
She also said that the collection of data on adult emergency department visits was likely affected by the implementation of a new record-keeping system, which rolled out in May for Halifax-area hospitals other than the IWK.
Weerdenburg will continue collecting data until the winter.
A report published last week by the Canadian Paediatric Surveillance Program documented 10 deaths, 12 ICU admissions and 26 hospitalizations lasting longer than 48 hours among pediatric patients resulting from the use of e-bikes, e-scooters, e-skateboards, e-unicycles, hoverboards and motorized mobility aids.
Those statistics documented injuries and deaths across Canada over a period of 12 months.
Halifax Regional Police spokesperson Marla MacInnis said officers can issue tickets to youth under 14 riding an e-scooter, or to their parents or guardians, which carry a $151.25 fine for a first-time offence.
“That said, we try to take an educational approach to enforcement first,” MacInnis said in an email. “We want to encourage youth to be outside and active but we also want to ensure they are being safe and understand the law.
“Our school resource officers have been doing a lot of work with students to help them, and their parents, understand the rules around e-scooters. That work will continue into the new school year.”
WATCH | Dr. Kristin Weerdenburg interview:
N.S. doctor calls for higher minimum age on e-bikes and e-scooters
Nova Scotia plans to ban kids under 14 from riding e-bikes this fall. Based on hospital injury statistics collected across Halifax this summer, ER physician Dr. Kirstin Weerdenburg explains why the age limit should be higher.
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