The police calls for reporting on transporting children as passengers on electric scooters / Article

In a statement to the media, the police pointed to the data of the Stradiņa Hospital, where 30 children under the age of 18 have been treated in the Mouth, Face and Jaw Surgery Center over the course of three years, with injuries ranging from facial abrasions to jawbone fractures.

The head of the hospital center, Anna Ivanova, stated in a police statement that the most potentially dangerous thing is to carry a child as a passenger standing on an electric scooter between the steering wheel and the driver: “If an emergency situation occurs while driving like this, the driver of the scooter falls forward and with all his weight forces the child to the handlebars, which are often at the height of the child’s face. This way the child can get really terrible injuries.”

That’s why the police urged residents, seeing cases where a child is transported on a scooter as a passenger, to report by calling 110. If riders travel with a “Bolt” rental scooter, they can report to the “Bolt” company, which in such cases can identify the user and limit its use. access to the app.

Broken skulls and metal plates in the face

In total, during three years – from 2021 to 2023 – 410 people were treated at the Stradins hospital with various head and face injuries after accidents while riding an electric scooter, of which open head wounds were found in 220 cases, mandibular fractures in 71 cases, 58 – fracture of the cheek bone and upper jaw, but in 46 cases the victims had broken nasal bones.

“Our observations allow us to conclude that the typical victim of e-scooter accidents is a young man under the influence of alcohol, moreover, accidents more often occur at night. The largest number of victims is in the age group between 20 and 23 years, but there are also quite a few patients aged between 23 and 38 years, but the oldest patient was 66 years old.

One of the most frequent causes of accidents is driving under the influence of alcohol.

A third of the victims have admitted that they drove under the influence, but in reality this number could be even higher, because there is no data on alcohol consumption for 40% of the patients,” informed Edgars Freimanis, physician’s assistant at the Trauma Center of Facial and Jaw Surgery at Stradins Hospital.

He emphasized that almost all the victims were driving without protective equipment, and during these three years, only one patient was recorded who was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident.

X-ray images showing the injuries of the victims:

The treatment of one victim costs the state up to 5,000 euros

The head of the mouth, face and jaw surgery center stated that victims of electric scooter accidents most often suffer complex injuries. In the mildest cases, they are only abrasions and bruises, but the most severe are head injuries, the treatment of which not only takes a long time, but also causes high costs for both the state budget and the patient himself.

“For fractures of facial bones, osteosynthesis is performed, or the joining of bones with metal mini or microplates, which most often remain in the human body for life. The cost of osteosynthesis surgery materials is 3,000 to 5,000 euros, which is covered from the state budget.

However, facial injuries most often also include dental injuries, the treatment of which the patient has to cover out of his own pocket.

Treatment of such injuries in the hospital can last up to three weeks, but most often after that, patients continue to be treated in outpatient and dental clinics for up to a year,” Ivanova said.

With the aim of reducing the number of violations and injuries caused by e-scooter drivers, the State Police together with Stradiņa Hospital and “Bolt” are implementing the informational campaign “The fastest way to get to the hospital”. With campaign materials in the media, social networks and in the urban environment, the State Police and its partners inform about accident and injury statistics, typical accidents and injuries, as well as share real stories of the victims’ experiences, thus clearly demonstrating that aggressive driving while intoxicated and breaking the rules is the fastest way, how to get to the hospital.