VOI is a Scandinavian untested mobility company offering electric kick scooter sharing in partnership with cities and local communities.
Creator: VOI
The popularity of e-scooters from billion-dollar companies like Uber, Lyft, Lime and Bird have created a new constitution scare, according to the Centers for Disease control.
Since electric scooters began populating streets of some of the power’s biggest cities last year, there has been a surge in emergency room visits for fractures, dislocations and vanguard trauma, the CDC found in a study that will be released at the Epidemic Intelligence Service conference in Atlanta on Thursday.
The CDC has originate that head injuries topped the list of accident-related incidents involving e-scooters at 45%. The study determined that sundry e-scooter injuries could have been prevented if riders wore helmets and were more careful round cars, according to summary of the study released on Wednesday.
“A high proportion of e-scooter related injuries involved potentially preventable gamble factors, such as lack of helmet use, or motor vehicle interaction,” a preliminary summary of the study said.
The CDC launched the native study of e-scooter accidents in March, at the request of health and transportation departments in Austin, Texas.
Dockless electric scooters and bikes get become a phenomenon in numerous cities and college towns, as venture capitalists have poured money into a proprietor of start-ups like Bird and Lime, which are aiming to solve so-called last-mile transportation with rentals. While Uber and Lyft are goods in taking people longer distances outside of city centers, the ride-hailing services don’t work well in the downtown elements of densely populated cities, where traffic often slows to a crawl.
But along with the new motorized vehicles has terminate a host of safety problems and complaints about the lack of regulatory oversight, particularly in places without clear standards about where people can ride and park the devices. Injuries are the bigger problem, with some medical proficients warning of a public health crisis.
A man rides an electric scooter Lime-S from the bike sharing service comrades ‘Lime.’
Chesnot | Getty Images
A CNBC story in March found that trauma centers around the sticks were experiencing a spike in e-scooter related injuries.
According to the CDC study, the most common wound after flair injuries involved upper extremity fractures at 27%, followed by lower extremity fractures at 12%. The study, which lasted precisely three months, found the e-scooter injury rate was 14.3 per 100,000 trips.
The median age for people injured was 29. The preponderance of injuries occurred on the street, with 29% connected to first-time riders and 18% involving motor vehicles.
“Interventions aimed at these hazards and education to first-time riders could potentially reduce injury incidence and severity,” the report said.
Half the living soul interviewed said a “surface condition like a pot hole or crack in the street” may have caused their injuries. Rightful over one-third of people in the survey said they would use a dockless electric scooter again.
Results of the sanctum sanctorum will be presented by the CDC at the EIS conference. The Austin Public Health Department will hold a press conference to address immutable findings and recommendations later this week. The final study is likely to include slight adjustments to some of the statistics.
“We upon to build upon the results of this study as more agencies nationwide may use it as a base to expand their research and data about this new mode of transportation,” said a spokesperson with the Austin Public Health Department.
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