E-Bike and E-Scooter Injuries on the Rise Among Children, Orlando Health Children’s Arnold Palmer Hospital Data Show

Contributed

Emergency department visits involving children injured while riding e-bikes and e-scooters are rising sharply in Central Florida, with new data from Orlando Health Children’s Arnold Palmer Hospital showing that the number of visits has more than doubled in just the first seven months of 2026 compared with all of 2024.

The hospital recorded 124 e-bike and e-scooter-related visits from January through July 2026, compared with 135 visits during all of 2025 and 57 visits in 2024. The 2025 total represented a 137% increase from the previous year. Through July of this year, visits are already at 92% of the 2025 total.

The injuries are not limited to minor scrapes and bruises. Based on available data from January 2024 through July 2026, 35% of patients sustained extremity fractures, 20% sustained head and/or face fractures, 15% sustained intracranial injuries and 10% experienced injuries involving multiple body regions.

“E-bikes and e-scooters can be fun and convenient, but they are motorized vehicles capable of reaching significant speeds, and children can sustain very serious injuries when something goes wrong,” said Marc Levy, MD, pediatric surgeon, Orlando Health Children’s Arnold Palmer Hospital. “What concerns us is not only the increasing number of children we are seeing, but the severity of some of these injuries. Parents and children should understand the risks and take basic safety precautions every time they ride.”

Children in the middle-school age range account for the most visits. From January through July 2026, 52 of the 124 patients were ages 11 to 13, compared with 30 elementary-aged children and 42 high-school-aged children. The 11-to-13 age group also represented the largest age category in both 2024 and 2025.

The hospital’s data also point to an important opportunity for injury prevention: only about 15% of the patients included in the data were wearing helmets.

In 2026, the hospital recorded 22 visits in January, 13 in February, 24 in March, 12 in April, 24 in May, 15 in June and 14 in July. E-scooters accounted for 63 visits and e-bikes accounted for 61 during the seven-month period.

With e-bike and e-scooter use becoming increasingly common among children and teens, Orlando Health Children’s Arnold Palmer Hospital encourages families to make safety part of every ride.