Patients who have been injured after riding an electric scooter come to Södersjukhuset's emergency room in Stockholm. During the summer, there have been one to two patients a day and on Friday and Saturday evenings there are between 5-6 patients per night, according to the hospital's internal statistics.
- We see that those who come here have mainly suffered facial injuries. The jaw and chin often take the brunt of electric scooter accidents and it is not uncommon for both teeth and jaw to be crushed, says Johan Raxell who is chief physician at Södersjukhuset's emergency room.
The majority of those injured come in on weekend nights after 24:00 and most have drunk alcohol.
- Even if you survive, it will be but for life because the scars are on the face, he says.
Studies of accidentsThe researcher, Helena Stigson, has studied reported injuries in 2019 and reported injuries to the insurance company Folksam during the spring of 2020. The injuries have either been registered with the emergency care, or directly to the company.
- 44% of the reported injuries were head injuries. The majority occur on weekend nights and very few of those injured, only thirteen percent have used a helmet at the time of the accident, says Helena Stigson researcher.
Javascript is disabled
Javascript must be turned on to play video
Read more about browser support
The browser is not supported
SVT does not support playback in your browser. We therefore recommend that you switch to another browser.
Read more about browser support
-It is primarily the face that is damaged in electric scooter accidents, says Helena Stigson, a researcher and active at the insurance company Folksam. Photo: Ann Sehlin, SVTSince it is precisely the jaw area that is allowed to receive the bang in electric scooter accidents, a helmet with chin protection could dampen better than a normal bicycle helmet, she believes.
May be change of rulesThe number of electric scooters has increased significantly in the cities and as a result, the number of accidents has also increased sharply. In 2018, 15 were reported and in 2019 there were 490 accidents. It shows a survey from the Swedish Road and Transport Research Institute, commissioned by the Swedish Transport Administration. The national statistics of 2020 are lagging behind because the hospitals during the pandemic have not reported traffic-related accidents in the same way as before.
The Swedish Transport Agency is currently investigating the issue of electric scooters on behalf of the government. Among other things, they look at the accident statistics and will come up with proposals for rule changes when the investigation is completed in March 2021.