DENVER — E-bikes and electric scooters have increased in popularity and emergency rooms are seeing a surge in injuries.
“We see them a lot. It’s certainly more in the summer and it tends to be a little bit more at night. The injuries we see often occur when the sun goes down, maybe people have been drinking and have used this short term of transportation,” said Dr. Nick Rosen with AdventHealth Porter.
Majority of the patients Dr. Rosen has treated are young adults and most are not wearing helmets.
The injuries doctors see range from facial or internal injuries, rib fracture, the less common but more severe — head injuries or bleeding in the brain.
“The most recent injury we saw was an open leg injury, so a fracture where the bone was coming out of the skin,” said Dr. Rosen.
“I think it’s important for people to be aware of the risk of injury that’s much higher when you’re traveling at a speed that you might not normally travel on a normal pedal bike or foot push scooter.”
According to the Denver Police Department, crashes involving E-bikes or electric scooters don’t get reported often because of several reasons, such as it gets reported online which gets sent to the DMV, the crash includes minor injuries or since these modes of transportation are not cars, if the electric scooter or bike crashes into a curb, police said it’s not considered a crash.
From January 1 to July 27 of last year, there were 53 electric bike and scooter crashes. During that exact time frame this year, there were 84 crashes and those are just the ones that have been reported to Denver police.
In Colorado, the same rules apply whether you’re on an electric scooter or bike. Riders must hug the right side of the road or bike lane, except when making a left turn.
Rides are not allowed to ride on a sidewalk unless it’s part of a designated bike path or you’re getting on or off.
If the vehicle is being ridden incorrectly such as:
º Riding on sidewalk
º Speeding
º Riding in wrong direction
º Disobeying traffic laws
º Other
You can report them to the city by calling 311 or fill out a Violation Form.