Riding Scooters: Fun And Danger At The Same Time?

The rise in popularity of those fold-up scooters has brought with it a rise in the number of children showing up in emergency rooms. Dr. Deborah Levine, pediatric emergency room physician at Bellevue Hospital in New York City talks to us about how to avoid the dangers of riding scooters.

We started having one to two cases a week since mid July--a total of 11 kids as of the end of August who were injured while riding scooters. Two of those 11 patients were admitted, one needed surgery on an orthopaedic fracture. We've seen several orthopaedic injuries--broken bones, a couple of kids who've hit their heads, five children had some sort of head trauma, two had amnesia, one lost consciousness.

Only one of those 11 kids who were injured was wearing a helmet. No other child was wearing any other sort of protective gear (elbow pads, knee pads). Several of the kids were unsupervised or supervised only by other kids. A couple of the kids were five years old, and the oldest was 12. According to what's being reported by the Consumer Products Safety Commission, kids in the 5 to12-year-old range are the majority of those being injured in scooter accidents.

Kids in that age range are less coordinated. They don't have the same motor skills as adults, certainly not as much common sense. They play more and engage in more and playful activities, but being less coordinated makes them less able to handle bumps and turns and stay out of the way of cars.

One child who came into the ER last week, was struck by a car while on a scooter. He couldn't get out of the way of the car fast enough because of the scooter, and broke two bones in his lower leg. It could have been much worse. Fortunately, so far in our ER, no child has been critically injured.

In summer, one to three or four traumas a day with kid--falls from gyms, injuries from car accidents, etc. So about a fifth of those coming in are from scooters, and we are just one emergency room out of many in Manhattan. This is a trend we hadn't seen in the past. We are seeing more injuries from scooters than from roller-blades or bikes in this last six-week period.

We still see a lot of bike accidents in combination with motor vehicles, but there may be more public awareness of protective gear with bikes, and kids are more prone to ride bikes in parks and away from traffic.

There are more kids riding scooters who may not have enough experience, or who are riding in inappropriate places. And scooters don't absorb a lot of the shocks that bikes do. A lot of kids' parents say there were stones in the gravel, cracks in the road, wheels got wet from sprinklers, which made the kids fall.

What's just amazing is that you're seeing so many younger children -- as young as three years old. I saw one in the hospital who was only two and half riding in a hospital corridor. Wow, I thought, it's a good thing that he's riding so close to the ER!

There seems to be a misconception about potential injury becuse the scooters are low to the ground and simple. Some web sites of scooter manufacturers advocate that no one younger than seven should ride them. Some web sites say "older children" without specifying an age.

If you look at the Children's Place brochure that comes in the mail, it pictures kids as young as three, wearing no protective gear, a very poor role model! Scooters are sometimes sold in clothing stores, not near where helmets are available. So by inference the message seems to be that protective gear isn't necessary. Parents are buying scooters with their kids' back-to-school clothes. You don't see bikes being sold in clothing stores, so parents think the scooters must be safer.

I'm gathering data to write an article. I want to publish a case series to let people know what's going on, the potential for risk, and emphasize the need to advise parents and children to wear protective gear, and appropriate clothing, such as long pants. The risk is there, it is occurring anmust be occurring across the board in many cities, not just New York. It's similar to what happened with skateboarding and in-line skating in the 70s and 80s, as accidents statistics mounted, awareness increased for the need to wear protective gear. People wrote reports, went to legislators, emphasized strict guidelines, etc.

The same thing happened with bikes, helmet laws came with consumer and medical community awareness and advocacy of the need for them.

It seems to me that roller-blades, especially for adults, were marketed with more emphasis on protective gear. But it's not necessarily true that scooters are safer than roller-blades. It has to do with the mechanics of the scooter.

Younger kids don't know how to break their fall. Maybe the handlebars maneuvering get in their way and keep them from breaking their fall. They give kids a false sense of security. Still, scooters are not bad things. You just need to be aware whom you are buying them for. They are not just toys.

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