Scooter Crash Analysis Gives Glimpse Of Injuries Toll In Austin

AUSTIN, TEXAS — Has Austin's ride-share scooter craze created a new pedestrian safety problem?

The Center for Disease Control officials haven't completed a first-of-its-kind study of crash data involving the popular two-wheelers being hailed as a way to give commuters a quick, inexpensive and faster-than-walking alternative for traveling short distances.

Austin police haven't compiled comprehensive scooter-involved crash data, yet.

But crash data obtained by Patch sheds some light on the state of electric-scooter commuter safety in Austin.

Austin-Travis County EMS officials reported that paramedics treated nearly 3 scooter-related injuries per day over about two months last year. There were 166 injuries reported between Sept. 25 and Nov. 29 last year, the data show.

The Austin-Travis County EMS data adds some context to previously reported anecdotal evidence that local hospitals and first responders regularly treat scooter-related injuries — cuts, scrapes, broken bones and head injuries, for instance. Concerns about scooter safety made national headlines in January when a 21 year-old University of Texas student died in Austin's first scooter-related traffic fatality.

SEE AUSTIN SCOOTER INJURY DATA HERE

Electric scooters seem to be everywhere since the first two electric-scooter providers first entered the local market in April 2018. Since then, eight other companies rushed in to capitalize on the trend. Currently, there are about 10,500 ride-share scooters available in Austin, with about 1,200 more set to hit the street, city data shows.

The EMS data obtained by Patch shows men were injured in scooter-related crashes than woman — 102 to 64, respectively. Most scooter-related injuries were reported on weekends. Here's the breakdown by day-of-the-week:

• Mondays: 11 scooter injuries were reported.
• Tuesdays: 16 scooter injuries reported.
• Wednesdays: 20 scooter injuries.
• Thursdays: 28 injuries reported.
• Fridays: 32 injuries.
• Saturdays: 38 injuries.
• Sundays: 21 injuries.

About 60 percent of scooter accidents with injuries occurred near the Congress District downtown. The data shows:

• The second-busiest ZIP code for scooter-related injuries 78705 ZIP code near UT-Austin, with 35 scooter-related injuries reported.
• There were 16 accidents with injuries reported in South Austin.
• There were 10 scooter-related injuries reported near the Pleasant Valley neighborhood, and 10 more reported in Central East Austin.

Other scooter-related injuries were scattered across the city.

Current Scooter Operators in Austin

• Bird - 1,000 scooters and 4,000 supplemental scooters (see map for Bird's areas of operation).
• JUMP - 500 scooters and 1,500 supplemental scooters (see map for Jump's areas of operation).
• Lime - 500 scooters and 4,500 supplemental scooters (see map for Lime's areas of operation).
• Lyft - 500 scooters and 1,000 supplemental scooters (see map for Lyft's areas of operation)
• OjO - 100 scooters
• Razor - 500 scooters *
• Skip - 500 scooters *
• Spin - 500 scooters
• Wind Mobility - 200 scooters *

* These companies have been licensed to operate in Austin, but have not yet deployed their devices.

Source: City of Austin

Patch graphic

Related stories:

Austin Police Provide Details On Deadly Scooter Crash

E-Scooter Providers Bird, Lime Sued As Injuries Mount

Ford Motor Co. Latest Entrant In Crowded Austin Scooter Industry

Lyft Unleashes Its Own Fleet Of Scooters To The Austin Mix

Woman Hurt In S. Austin Crash Was On Scooter After All

Scooters made their appearance during SXSW 2019 for the first time, but they were banned from blocked-off portions of the 6th Street entertainment corridor to prevent collisions with revelers.

Several times, paramedics responded to multiple scooter-related crashes on a single day. On Friday, Sept. 7, 2018, for example, four people — two males and two females — were transported to the hospital after accidents at Red River and East 15th streets, the 6000 block of Airport Boulevard, 110 E. 2nd St., and East 21st Street at San Jacinto Blvd. Less than a week later on Thursday, Sept. 13, another four (including a female rider) were hurt at various locations.

E-scooters were encountered early evening on March 21 along 29th and Guadalupe Streets....

The following day, on Friday, Sept. 14, 2018, another four (three females among them) were sent to the hospital, and four more (including three males) were hospitalized on Sunday, Sept. 15.

...and just a few feet away the same day approaching 30th and Guadalupe streets.

Oct. 4, 2018, proved especially busy for medics as seven people — all but one male — were treated before being transported to the hospital, with accidents occurring at West Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard at Guadalupe Street, Guadalupe Street at West 9th Street, West 25th Street at Pearl Street, 400 S. Congress Ave., Old Manor Road at East 51st Street, 11600 Alterra Parkway, and 300 E 4th Street.

Lined-up scooters seen along Rio Grande Street at 31st Street.

Dr. Christopher Ziebell at Dell Seton Medical Center says he has lost count of how many people he's treated. "We went to a technology that didn't exist in March to one that did exist in April, so the increase was from zero to many," he said when asked an estimate on the number of scooter injuries he's seen. "The technology got introduced before anyone got a chance to figure out how to use it."

Ziebell said the growing number of patients injured from scooter injuries are seen during all 11 hospital shifts at Dell Seton: "It's not overwhelming us, but enough to hit our consciousness and make us aware," he told Patch in a telephone interview.

In Austin's only scooter-related fatality since the mass introduction of the devices, Mark Sands, a 21-year-old Irish foreign exchange student, was killed after crashing with a car just before 1 a.m. on Feb. 1, 2019, in the 500 block of North Interstate 35 service road. According to police, a 2006 silver Volkswagen Jetta was traveling southbound in the right lane of the highway service road before changing lanes to enter the ramp of southbound I-35, which is where the collision occurred.

Ziebell said his medical staff sees a cross-section of ages among patients injured while on scooters. "We've seen a full range, actually," he said. "Some of the most serious ones are in their 50s and 60s. Certainly, it's not exclusive to the college age." The doctor noted that older enthusiasts are more vulnerable given slower reaction speeds, less keen eyesight and brittle bones.

A pair of electric scooters left along Guadalupe Street after usage.

Ziebell said nearly all the patients he has treated for scooter-related injuries were wearing helmets when they got hurt.

"Between April and today, I have seen one person wearing a helmet although I've seen thousands of people not wearing a helmet," Ziebell said. "The head is vulnerable on these things if the machine stops abruptly, or you hit a pebble and go head-first like a projectile, hitting whatever is in the way, whether it be a light pole or another person."

When fully charged, electric scooters move at a speed of 15 to 20 miles per hour. While that doesn't sound too fast, it's about the average human running speed.

"The human body is a sturdy one, but only up to a point, able to withstand collisions of about 15 m.p.h., which is about as fast as an average person can run," a Time magazine story reported. "The skull is designed to be especially rugged — the permanent home and helmet for the brain — but even it can't take a much more serious hit. The problem is that over the centuries, we've developed all manner of ways to exceed a mere 15 m.p.h. creep."

Read a TIME cover story on the brain

Because helmets are rendered ineffectual once involved in a crash as they can no longer protect a person's head, including them in the rental package with a scooter is not a practical remedy, Ziebell tells Patch.

Concussions are among the most common collision-related head injury, occurring when the head moves at high speed before suddenly stopping as it strikes a hard object, according to the Time report.

What happens next: Bruising and swelling at best and bleeding at worst. According to the report, a brain-bleed is immediately life-threatening. Swelling is less so and may not be evident for a while. Natasha Richardson, the actress who died years ago in a skiing accident while traveling at a scooter-like speed, was seemingly alert and conversant after hitting her head, only to die after being transported to the hospital.

Like the police, hospitals also lack a code to log such injuries. For hospitals, the code wouldn't solely be for record-keeping but for insurance billing purposes as well, Ziebell said. The ICD-10-CM (International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification) is a system used by physicians and other health care providers to classify and code all diagnoses, symptoms and procedures recorded in conjunction with hospital care in the United States.

To date, no ICD code exists for scooter injuries in the medical landscape. As a result, no official tally of scooter injuries exists.

"The other thing that's challenging on this is a lot of what we do is coded data," Ziebell said. "We do the best we can to extract from charts. But until the code gets added, any data we get will be flawed. That's the nature of these disruptive technologies."

Aside from his doctor's perspective, Ziebell notes another issue regarding rentable scooters: Instruction manuals on store-bought scooters advise owners not to leave them out in the elements for extended periods of time, while rentable scooters are left on city sidewalks until the next person arrives to use it. "They originally were not intended to be left out in the Texas sun," Ziebell said. "Brakes and throttle cables get rusty."

Scooters left along a sidewalk on Rio Grande Street.

City officials have taken a long, hard look at scooters as a result of increasing reports of accidents, coupled with the annoyance factor as pedestrians are forced to negotiate around them on city sidewalks once users are finished riding them. The Austin Transportation Department has revised an existing city ordinance designed to empower police to issue tickets to riders seen disobeying traffic laws after a first warning. Other proposals include reserving zones for shared mobility devices such as scooters, designating areas where riding is allowed and requiring scooter users under the age of 18 to wear a helmet.

The proposed ordinance will be voted on by city council on March 28.