Rates of Pediatric E-Bicycle, E-Scooter Injuries Increasing

THURSDAY, Nov. 5, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Rates of pediatric electric bicycle (e-bicycle) and electric scooter (e-scooter) injuries are increasing and are more likely to be high severity, according to a research letter published online Nov. 2 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Alan R. Schroeder, M.D., from the Stanford University School of Medicine in California, and colleagues identified injury encounters for e-bicycles, e-scooters, nonmotorized bicycles, nonmotorized scooters, and skateboards in a multicenter study involving patients younger than 18 years of age who received emergency department, urgent care, or inpatient care between Jan. 1, 2023, and March 31, 2026.

Data were included for 13,307 injury encounters: 642 and 1,396 involved e-bicycles and e-scooters, respectively. The median age for e-bicycle and e-scooter injuries was older than that for injuries from nonmotorized bicycles, scooters, and skateboards, but 24 and 44 percent of e-bicycle and e-scooter injuries, respectively, occurred in children younger than 12 years. The researchers found that during the 3.25-year study period, the rates of injuries increased for e-scooters, e-bicycles, nonmotorized bicycles, and nonmotorized scooters (9.9, 8.7, 7.9, and 3.9 per 100,000 patients, respectively) after adjustment for seasonality. Proportionately, the increases were greatest for e-bicycles and e-scooters compared with nonmotorized scooters and nonmotorized bicycles (incidence rate ratios, 1.33, 1.15, 1.04, and 1.02 per quarter, respectively). High-severity injuries were more common with e-bicycles versus nonmotorized bicycles and with e-scooters versus nonmotorized scooters (8 versus 4 percent and 5 versus 2 percent, respectively).

“We”ve uncovered a serious public health emergency that needs a public health solution,” Schroeder said in a statement.

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