Some hospitals are seeing more and more children with injuries from e-scooters, a new review suggests, external.<\/p>\n
Three trauma centres – Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield – say they have treated 477 under-16s since 2019, with the number of cases per year rising from fewer than 10 in 2019 to nearly 150 in 2024.<\/p>\n
The average age of those injured was 12, with the youngest nine. Hardly any were wearing helmets.<\/p>\n
The emergency department doctors are calling for laws to better protect children. Currently in the UK, there is no legal age restriction, speed limit or safety equipment requirement for the estimated 1.2 million, external people who own private e-scooters.<\/p>\n
Jacob Calland, pictured with his mother Carly Calland, was the passenger when the scooter collided with a BMW car<\/p>\n
Some e-scooters have a "turbo mode" setting, meaning they can reach speeds of around 28mph.<\/p>\n
Recently, a UK teenager using one of these crashed and killed his 14-year-old friend on a busy road – one of 59 deaths involving e-scooters in the UK to date.<\/p>\n
Jacob Calland, who was a passenger on the back, suffered irreversible brain injuries when it was struck by a BMW car in Wythenshawe, Manchester, on 19 March 2025.<\/p>\n
Manchester Crown Court heard the teenager driving the e-scooter also sustained serious injuries, including a bleed on the brain and numerous bone fractures.<\/p>\n
And Det Con Steve Pennington from Greater Manchester Police's Serious Collision Investigation Unit stressed e-scooters were not harmless toys and could lead to horrific consequences when used by inexperienced riders.<\/p>\n
Most of the incidents in Manchester, Liverpool and Sheffield involved private e-scooters, often on public roads, pavements or footpaths, despite that being illegal.<\/p>\n
Private e-scooters are meant only for use on private land, with the owner's permission.<\/p>\n
Half of the children injured were aged between 10 and 13. Nearly two-thirds were boys.<\/p>\n
Most injuries were sustained by the rider – only 5% were pedestrians that had been hit by an e-scooter – and the most common cause was falling off the e-scooter.<\/p>\n
Around 11% were collisions with a vehicle, which was often linked to more serious injuries.<\/p>\n