Amy Gianfrancesco suffered a fractured neck, a lost tooth and severe facial bruising after a Lime scooter crash. Photo / Supplied
The lull in prangs was predictable. The New Year began with the largest rideshare market, Auckland, nearly devoid of scooters in the lull between Lime being kicked out and newcomers arriving.
The taxpayer-funded accident insurer also broke down its 4281 e-scooter claims by type.
Over the past 16 months, there have been 2191 soft tissue injuries, 1030 punctures or lacerations, 710 fractures or dislocations, 99 dental injuries and 99 concussions or brain injuries.
Claims
Loss of balance (3511) is easily the biggest cause of accidents, but there have also been 147 collisions.
Liam Thompson, 27, broke his jaw and suffered cuts after flying over the handlebars of a Lime scooter. Photos / Supplied
A Herald editorial questioned Auckland Council's decision to raise its e-scooter license limit from 1875 to 3200 when cycle-way infrastructure was still very much a work in progress, and central government had yet to say if it would change the law around e-scooters on footpaths, or introduce speed-limits or mandatory helmets or other safety measures for low-powered vehicles. Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter says a paper will go to Cabinet shortly and a public discussion process would follow).
But beyond being the only popular form of transport that sits in a regulatory grey area, studies have indicated
disturbing trends when e-scooters are compared to other forms of transport.
InjuryCauses
E-scooter injuries at Dunedin's emergency department outpaced car-related presentations in 2019, for example, according to an article published in Emergency Medicine Australasia
Breaking down the vehicle-related injuries of 172 people in a six-week 2018 timeframe and 228 in 2019, University of Otago researchers found 56 people were injured in 52 e-scooter accidents in 2019.
Lime scooters began operating in Dunedin in January 2019.
Regions
Car and truck-related injuries were at 52, and motorbikes and mopeds
21.
The largest group was bicycle-related at 62, which included collisions between bicycles and cars.
On average,
e-scooters patient took a hospital bed for 2h 44min a day during the 2019
study period.
Debra Christensen, sporting head injuries after she was hit and knocked out by a Lime scooter rider as she was getting off a bus near Auckland's Victoria Park in June. Photo / Brett Phibbs
And although e-scooters are often compared to regular scooters and bikes -
which spark more claims to ACC - research has also found that accidents on e-scooters are often closer in character to those caused by motorcycles.
Otago University student Renee Whitehouse ended up in Dunedin Hospital's ICU after sustaining serious head injuries when her e-scooter hit a truck. Photo / tephen Jaquiery
A study found of Auckland Hospital's e-scooter-related acute surgery costs were $360,000 from Lime's launch on October 15, 2018 to February 22, 2019 as e-scooters caused more serious injuries than motorbikes.
NewstalkZB host Tim Wilson broke his patella, or knee cap, in a e-scooter spill. Photo / @scallywaggwilson
Of 708 acute orthopaedic operations at the hospital, 98 of which related to
vehicles excluding cars, 23 operations were for e-scooter riders, 34 for bicycles, 20 for motorbikes, 11 for skateboards and 10 for mopeds.
Auckland Council six-month licence period to June 3, 2020 • Total e-scooter allocation: Raised from 1875 to 3200 • Beam: 880 • Neuron: 880 • Jump by Uber: 735 • Flamingo: 630 • Yet-to-be-allocated: 75
