{"id":510759,"date":"2026-06-21T07:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T07:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/510759\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T07:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T07:26:11","slug":"a-close-shave-with-a-dublin-bus-made-me-reconsider-commuting-by-e-scooter-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/510759\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A close shave with a Dublin bus made me reconsider commuting by e-scooter\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve walked, cycled<\/a> and driven on Dublin<\/a>\u2019s streets for 30 years but the closest I\u2018ve come to serious injury \u2013 or worse \u2013 was on an e-scooter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was the spring of 2019 and the zippy little machines were suddenly all the rage. For a wheeze and for work purposes, I gave one a whirl and such was the excitement in The Irish Times that grown men and women \u2013 people who really should have known better \u2013 begged for a turn to whizz through the newsroom on the nifty device. <\/p>\n

After the brief trial I bought one and travelled happily \u2013 if ridiculously \u2013 around the city for a month or so until, one miserable spring evening, I found myself travelling under a bus. <\/p>\n

It was a damp early April day at the junction of Abbey Street and O\u2019Connell Street and the road was slick and greasy with rain. I zipped around the corner at maybe 15km\/h when suddenly the tiny wheels, with nothing by way of a tyre tread, went from under me, causing the scooter to skitter across the street. I went flying and landed in the road just as a bus came thundering past, close enough to make me start reconsidering my commuting options.<\/p>\n

A couple of days later, still scooting, I was gliding past a car, helmetless, as is the e-scooter boy way, when the driver door opened, forcing me right into the blaring horns and screeching brakes of oncoming traffic. That was when I decided scooting was not for me.<\/p>\n

Some six years on, the dangers of the devices are becoming harder to deny, particularly when it comes to young people, those we can\u2019t really expect to know better. <\/p>\n

Earlier this week, a team of medics from Children\u2019s Health Ireland (CHI) expressed grave concern<\/a> at the scale of injuries they\u2019re seeing among young e-scooter users, with traumatic brain injuries from e-scooter accidents now the leading cause of admissions to Temple Street\u2019s paediatric neurosurgical centre.<\/p>\n

That is despite the fact that, under current legislation, anyone who uses one must be over the age of 16 and obey a speed limit of 20km\/h, and suggests that the law is not being enforced with the necessary rigour.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The crisis of e-scooters and traumatic brain injuries in childrenOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The letter hailed CHI\u2019s collaboration with the Road Safety Authority on an awareness campaign broadcast in the media from late 2025 but highlighted how more was needed.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn e-scooter in Dublin traffic. ‘The thing about traumatic brain injuries is that once they\u2019ve happened, you can\u2019t undo them.’ Photograph: Bryan O\u2019Brien <\/p>\n

The growing problem of e-scooters and young people was discussed by the Oireachtas transport committee the day after the letter to the editor appeared in The Irish Times, with Se\u00e1n Canny, Minister of State at the Department of Transport, saying that while they are \u201cof benefit to people\u201d their misuse was down to \u201cstupidity\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said the Government is considering a range of measures to target that misuse, including requirements to register, insure and tax e-scooters.<\/p>\n

E-scooters are undoubtedly popular and, for many people, particularly in areas not well served by public transport, they are a solution to the daily commute. They are also affordable and easy to transport and to store, making them a more practical answer for those in smaller living spaces.<\/p>\n

Fine Gael TD Grace Boland asked the Minister about the letter from the children\u2019s doctors; Canny said the \u201cmedical evidence\u201d presented by CHI helped to \u201cdemonstrate the end result of this stupidity\u201d.<\/p>\n

Dr Irwin Gill is a consultant in neurodisability who practices primarily in CHI at Temple Street with a focus on rehabilitation after brain injuries. He was one of The Irish Times letter\u2019s signatories and believes more action at the highest level can\u2019t come quickly enough. <\/p>\n

He points to a broad spectrum of injuries among Ireland\u2019s youngest e-scooter users but says the types that trouble medics most are the traumatic brain injuries, which jumped by 50 per cent in in the past 12 months. <\/p>\n

This is out of control in terms of paediatric traumatic brain injury<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Dr Irwin Gill<\/p>\n

\u201cThe difficulty with traumatic brain injury [is] the effects often only become apparent over time,\u201d he notes. \u201cInitially a lot of the rehabilitation is focused on things that you\u2019ll see, like difficulties with walking and talking and hand skills. And then, over time, the things that are of, I suppose, a special concern to us are neurocognitive skills such as memory, learning behaviour, attention, self-control, self-regulation.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says: \u201cThose are things that can take sometimes months or years to become apparent. We\u2019re only starting to see children back in our clinics with enough time having passed for us to really start seeing those effects.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018He won\u2019t be able to walk again\u2019: Parents warned to avoid buying e-scooters for ChristmasOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

There are, he says, \u201cchildren who are really struggling with those invisible challenges that are easily misunderstood\u201d, directly as a result of e-scooter accidents.<\/p>\n

Gill says almost all of the injuries hospitals are treating are as a result of single e-scooter accidents where a child travelling at speed hits a curb or a pole or parked car, with young boys \u201coverwhelmingly\u201d the ones being impacted <\/p>\n

\u201cWe look after these children when they\u2019re in hospital and then afterwards in clinics, but the thing about traumatic brain injuries is that once they\u2019ve happened, you can\u2019t undo them. You can work to rehabilitate the injuries [but they] can\u2019t be taken back once they\u2019ve happened,\u201d Gill says. <\/p>\n

He accepts that when legislation was passed making e-scooters legal with certain limitations in 2024, nobody foresaw \u201cthat there would be this level of injury coming and I think there\u2019s an obligation on the Government now to respond to what we\u2019re seeing. This is out of control in terms of paediatric traumatic brain injury. It was bad last year and worse this year, and I think it is unlikely to improve, unless there\u2019s more of a response.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ConorConor Pope: I decided scooting was not for me after a close call in 2019. Photograph: Dave Meehan <\/p>\n

The doctor highlights the absence of international consensus about what should be done. Some countries have not legalised the use of e-scooters; others have. Some have allowed rental schemes and some are banning rental schemes entirely. There are different rules in different places when it comes to speeds, helmets and age limits. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no consensus and I think what that means is we need to keep all the options on the table,\u201d including mandatory licensing and insurance, and the option of \u201cgetting them off the roads completely\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n

He stresses that a \u201cfatalistic response that we are somehow stuck with the status quo is not appropriate. The fact that they are here now does not mean we necessarily need to accept that they will be here \u2013 in this manner, at least \u2013 forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

A recent study in Britain found the devices are \u201cdisproportionately relied on\u201d by lower-income groups.<\/p>\n

According to CoMoUK, a charity promoting shared transport, the number of people using rental e-scooters in England has grown by more than 50 per cent in a year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019ve walked, cycled and driven on Dublin\u2019s streets for 30 years but the closest I\u2018ve come to serious…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[76750,30791,615,137170,61,60,43,976],"class_list":["post-510759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-children-s-health","tag-children-s-health-ireland-chi","tag-dublin","tag-escooters","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-weekendreview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}