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Scooter Use is Rising in Major Cities. So Are Trips To the Emergency Room. (washingtonpost.com)
They have been pouring into emergency rooms around the nation all summer, their bodies bearing a blend of injuries that doctors normally associate with victims of car wrecks -- broken noses, wrists and shoulders, facial lacerations and fractures, as well as the kind of blunt head trauma that can leave brains permanently damaged. The Washington Post reports: When doctors began asking patients to explain their injuries, many were surprised to learn that the surge of broken body parts stemmed from the latest urban transportation trend: shared electric scooters. In Santa Monica, Calif. -- where one of the biggest electric-scooter companies is based -- the city's fire department has responded to 34 serious accidents involving the devices this summer. The director of an emergency department there said his team treated 18 patients who were seriously injured in electric-scooter accidents during the final two weeks of July. And in San Francisco, the doctor who runs the emergency room at a major hospital said he is seeing as many as 10 severe injuries a week.
[...] As the injuries pile up in cities across the country, the three largest scooter companies -- operating under the names Bird, Lime and Skip -- have seen their values soar as they attempt to transform urban transit, following the successes of ride-hailing and bike-sharing companies. The scooter start-ups have attracted massive investments from Uber, the prominent technology venture capital firm Sequoia Capital and Alphabet, Google's parent company, with some analysts estimating that some of the privately held companies might be worth more than $1 billion. Responding to The Post, all these companies said safety is a priority to them, but at least Bird is also lobbying against legislation in California that would require users to wear helmets, the paper reported.
[...] As the injuries pile up in cities across the country, the three largest scooter companies -- operating under the names Bird, Lime and Skip -- have seen their values soar as they attempt to transform urban transit, following the successes of ride-hailing and bike-sharing companies. The scooter start-ups have attracted massive investments from Uber, the prominent technology venture capital firm Sequoia Capital and Alphabet, Google's parent company, with some analysts estimating that some of the privately held companies might be worth more than $1 billion. Responding to The Post, all these companies said safety is a priority to them, but at least Bird is also lobbying against legislation in California that would require users to wear helmets, the paper reported.
is the cause of accidents. They talk about people injured by mechanical failures, and undoubtedly those occur.
But no mention of what percentage is caused by that, what percentage caused by rider error (which is likely rather higher) and what percentage is caused by other drivers (since it's illegal to ride these things on the sidewalk, which means you're in a bicycle lane or on the street). Most motorcycle accidents are cause by drivers of cars who never saw the bike. I suspect the same is true on these toys.
But let's not let facts get in the way of any propaganda! There's money to be made, selling advertising to outrage monkeys.
Helmets don't protect against concussions.
I recently ran across an interesting story...
Back when World War I started, British troops did not have helmets. After a few artillery barrages, the British government bought helmets (from the French) and started producing their own helmets for troops. Soon, all the British troops had helmets.
And the number of head injuries increased!
Well, needless to say, people were quite concerned. What the hell is going on? We got them helmets to keep them safe and it's worse now than it was before!
But not really. See, the number of deaths went down. But the number of injuries increased. Because, let's face it, a 1 mm thick steel helmet when impacted by shrapnel traveling at hundreds of miles per hour is not going to leave the wearer none the worse. But they probably won't die from the encounter.
You're right--bike helmets won't protect against concussions. If you're riding your bike at, say, 20 MPH and you run into a car, you may end up with a concussion. But you will probably survive, which is kind of what we're aiming for here.