TINY VEHICLES, BIG RISKS
A CLOSE CALL CALLS FOR COMMON SENSE
It happened so fast.
It was 5 pm and I was driving home from running errands. It was the middle of winter so it was already dark. I was stopped at a stoplight at an infamous 5-way intersection in my town. The walk signal ended, and the light turned green.
Just then this kid on a motorized scooter came flying down the road and through the intersection diagonally. As in, not in the crosswalk, just right across the middle of the intersection.
He was of course wearing dark colors with nothing reflective.
Meantime, the cars who had the green light had revved up and were accelerating.
My heart jumped as I realized:
Oh my god. They don’t see him.
I leaned into my horn.
At the exact same time, the kid swerved away from the oncoming traffic, and the car that had been about to hit him slammed on the brakes.
They barely missed him.
The kid zoomed away, unharmed.
It turned out okay. But I was shaken for hours afterward because as a doctor, I have seen what it looks like when it doesn’t turn out okay.
That boy came within inches of being struck by a car going about 25 MPH. That doesn’t sound that fast, but a 60-pound kid versus a 4000-pound car is always going to be ugly.
Flashbacks from medical training
I did a brutal 4-year residency at a gritty urban hospital, learning internal medicine and pediatrics. We saw a fair amount of trauma.
I remembered one particular case: There was a boy who had been riding a bike across an intersection, just like the boy on the scooter. He’d been struck by a car, thrown some distance, and hit the pavement hard. His brain swelled and he’d had to have a piece of his skull removed to relieve the pressure. He was intubated and on a ventilator for weeks.
His father basically moved into the hospital and slept by his side. They were in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit for ages. Almost unbelievably, the boy recovered enough to wake up and leave the hospital for a physical rehab. He had suffered a serious traumatic brain injury, but he was alive and alert.
Still, I really, really did not want to see something like that happen firsthand.
How risky are these things anyways?
These motorized scooters are a new thing and strike me as potentially pretty dangerous, so I did some research to check that hypothesis.
I learned that these are technically referred to as “micromobility devices”, a term that includes electric scooters and bikes, and hoverboards.
As it turns out, there are recent official U.S. statistics on associated deaths and injuries. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission website published the highlights:
- Between 2017 and 2022, there were an estimated 360,800 emergency department visits related to all micromobility devices.
- Micromobility-related injuries have trended upward since 2017, increasing by 23% every year.
- Children 14 years and younger accounted for about 36% of these injuries (notably, this is double their 18% proportion of the U.S. population).
- The most common types of injuries included bone fractures, followed by bruises and abrasions.
- The most frequently injured body areas are the limbs, head and neck.
- There were 233 reported deaths (although they note that reporting is ongoing and incomplete).
It was interesting that the report made this comment:
“Many micromobility products are small, quick, and quiet, making it difficult for others to spot them.”
Case in point.
Thankfully neither of my kids have asked for anything motorized, yet. Though technically, they could get hit by a car on any of the non-motorized Things on Wheels that they have: skateboard, bike, scooter.
I think the lessons are the same, really. It’s all about having common sense.
Common sense on wheels
It’s pretty basic stuff that will save lives: Cross at the signal, stay in the crosswalk, make sure you can be seen.
If the kid on the scooter had done any of that, he wouldn’t have been a near miss…. and I wouldn’t have had a heart attack, followed by residency flashbacks.
So, parents of children on any kind of wheels, please remind them:
Cross at the signal,
Stay in the crosswalk,
Make sure you can be seen.
***
Want to see the full report? Check out the Micromobility Products-Related Deaths, Injuries, and Hazard Patterns, released in October 2023 by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).
A version of this post was previously published on my own blog.
