ORLANDO, Fla. — The first day of school means kids are out on their micromobility devices. Despite a new ban in Orange County on e-bikes and e-scooters for students without a driver’s license or a permit, they still were out on roads and sidewalks Tuesday.
Some doctors at Orlando Health have mixed feelings about the ban. They said they want to see some type of restrictions, but they know a campus ban doesn’t completely solve the problem.
Doctors said they know, though, that some action needs to be taken because kids are coming into the emergency room at an alarming rate with e-bike injuries.
On Tuesday, Orlando Health hosted a simulation of an extremely real scenario, dealing with trauma response for e-bike and e-scooter injuries. It starts with preparation for the paramedics.
“That treatment can start in the field,” said Dr. Don Plumley, a pediatric trauma surgeon at Orlando Health. “They can start administering blood, treating a brain injury. How they treat that patient in the field might be the difference between life and death or long-term disability.”
Orlando Health reported that its facilities saw 57 emergency room visits caused by e-bikes and e-scooters in 2024. By 2025, its ER doctors cared for 135, nearly double. About halfway through this year, there are already 124. Of those patients, only 15% were wearing a helmet.
“These bikes are heavy; they are fast. Our technology has kind of outgrown our safety, so I think that is where we need to catch up,” Plumley said.
So far in 2026, once at least every other day, a kid comes into an Orlando Health ER with injuries from an e-bike or e-scooter. The most common are head, limb and face fractures, followed by brain injuries.
“We can fix a lot of things. We can’t necessarily fix the brain, but we can minimize the injuries that happen to the brain,” said Dr. Marc Levy, a pediatric trauma surgeon at Orlando Health.
Middle school-aged children come to the ER more than any other age group, according to data at Orlando Health.
“Kids are getting e-bikes at ages they shouldn’t have them, and they are going speeds they shouldn’t go or can’t even control when they are young and don’t have the coordination to do it, and that’s problematic for sure,” Levy said.
The team at Orlando Health and its paramedic partners in Orange and Osceola counties said they want to be prepared when incidents happen, so simulations get them ready to treat traumatic injuries and save lives.
The pediatric doctors said they expect more kids will come into the ER with injuries suffered on micromobility devices, despite the new ban on Orange County Public School campuses.
For now, Orange County is in a grace period, which means they almost certainly still will be found on campuses. The district said if kids ride e-bikes or e-scooters to school, staff will tell them it is not allowed and let their parents know. They have until Sept. 8 to figure out alternative plans to get to and from school.