THE Government has announced plans to stop children using e-scooters but some critics want a full ban.
They claim that e-scooters are death-traps and should be outlawed as injury statistics mount up.
Gardai, road safety officials, brain injury specialists, local politicians, and hospital surgeons have all slammed e-scooters.
The Government has acknowledged e-scooters’ dangers and has pledged to further examine the growing opposition calls.
The Department of Health last week asked the HSE for a public health report on e-scooter injuries in response to a surge in serious injuries.
A boy was rushed from Buncrana to A&E in January last year with head injuries, a woman was hospitalised in Letterkenny last September, six children ended up in on life-support in Dublin a fortnight ago, and a man was injured in Carlow last week.
Some 11 e-scooter users have been killed nationwide since 2021, including two this year, with 254 seriously injured, according to Road Safety Authority (RSA) figures.
Letterkenny gardai seized three e-scooters in February when members of the public complained they were being used on footpaths, which is illegal.
In a warning to e-scooter users, a Garda spokesperson said at the time: “As part of ongoing enforcement to keep our communities safe, the seized e-scooters are believed to have been in breach of power, weight and other regulations. Enforcement will continue.”
This week, a Garda spokesperson told the Donegal News that e-scooters “cause death or serious injury” and vowed a major crackdown against them.
HUGE CONCERNS
Cllr Ciaran Brogan in Letterkenny told this newspaper: “I have huge concerns about e-scooters.”
Cllr Jack Murray 40kms away in Buncrana said: “People are understandably concerned given the number of children recently hospitalised on e-scooters.”
The RSA, which campaigned to discourage parents from buying e-scooters, told us that it is “gravely concerned about the high number of traumatic brain injuries among children using e-scooters” and wants a “regulatory or legislative response”.
A spokesperson in Donegal for Acquired Brain Injuries Ireland said: “Users should have a helmet. If you hit your head, you hit your head – and that can have significant consequences.”
Hospital surgeons blame the scooters for an “epidemic” of injuries and some have called for them to be banned.
NEW LAWS
New laws, which came into force in May 2024, made e-scooters legal in Ireland – but several conditions were attached and they are now set to be updated following Government discussions yesterday (Monday).
For now, users must be at least 16 years old, do not exceed a speed limit of 20km/h, and do not carry passengers or other cargo like parcels and do not use footpaths.
E-scooters must also conform to certain sizes and engines of power.
They are allowed in cycle and bus lanes, but they must be used on the left and obey the same rules of the road that apply to cyclists.
Campaigners like the RSA claim injuries have rocketed since the legislation made e-scooters legal – and called for a legislative review.
It said last Christmas: “We and Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) are urging parents and guardians not to buy e-scooters for children under the age of 16.
“Since e-scooter legislation was introduced in 2024, hospitals have seen a worrying rise in serious injuries among young riders.
“Falls from e-scooters are now the leading cause of traumatic brain injuries in children admitted to Temple Street Hospital. “
This week, the RSA told the Donegal News: “This represents a serious emerging public health concern and warrants a regulatory or legislative response.”
Its spokesperson added: “Risk-taking behaviour by e-scooter users is of concern, as is the safety of these users on our roads.”
The Donegal News contacted the HSE to request interviews with a spokesperson from the surgery team of Letterkenny University Hospital but we were told: “We do not have a spokesperson available.”
HEAD TRAUMA
Other hospitals’ surgeons spoke recently to warn about the dangers of e-scooters, including Temple Street paediatrician Dr Emer Ryan, consultant paediatrician Dr Irwin Gill, and consultant neurosurgeon Professor Darach Crimmins.
Prof Crimmins revealed that six children were admitted in need of life support due to e-scooter injuries recently, called for them to be banned, and claimed that e-scooters now account for half of all children’s head injuries.
He told RTE: “It’s now the single biggest cause of head trauma in children, and has been for the last year.
“Skull fractures, intracranial haemorrhage, surgery to relieve pressure on the brain, surgery to put in pressure monitors.
“All these children end up back on life support in our intensive care units. Some of them will be on life support for some weeks and some of them may not make it.
“None of these children that I’ve treated this week will be the same children ever again.”
He added that because he is operating on these preventable injuries, he is losing time away from operations on children who have brain tumours.
Prof Crimmins said: “My adult colleagues in Beaumont are seeing the same thing in adults using these scooters.
“It’s the single biggest cause of cranial trauma for them as well. I think that e-scooters are inherently unsafe.
“I don’t think any legislation about their use and how you use them is, in any way, effective. There should be an outright ban.”
E-scooters could be outlawed for children.
Dr Gill said: “In the last just over 24 months, we’ve had 36 children in, spending an average of three weeks in hospital. It’s over 700 bed days accounted for by children with e-scooters.”
A Garda spokesperson told the Donegal News that the force has a “proactive approach in addressing the illegal and dangerous use” of e-scooters under the Road Traffic and Roads Act 2023.
He said: “E-scooters can cause death or serious injury to riders and other members of the public.
“There is an array of current legislation that tackles this problem including Sections 41 and 109A of the Road Traffic Act.
“This legislation provides powers to seize, detain and dispose of illegal vehicles that are being used in any public spaces.”
He added: “E-scooter-related brain injuries now account for more than 25% of paediatric neurosurgical admissions.
“Around half of these children required intensive care, and almost half underwent emergency neurosurgery, with some left with permanent disabilities.”
In response, Tánaiste Simon Harris recently pledged that the Government will do more around e-scooter safety.
He said: “We have to take a very, very active position in relation to do this, and we intend to. We’ve seen horror on our roads in relation to e-scooter accidents.”
Letterkenny Cllr Brogan told the Donegal News he has “huge concerns” and Inishowen Cllr Murray said: “I have had concerns raised with me locally.
“E-scooters are being used at speed on footpaths, underage use and the danger posed to pedestrians, especially older people and people with disabilities.
“There should be stronger Garda powers, tougher enforcement and meaningful penalties.
“The safety of children, pedestrians and other vulnerable road users must come first.”