Are Motorized Scooters Associated With More Severe Craniomaxillofacial Injuries?

The purpose of the present study was to compare the severity of craniomaxillofacial injuries between accidents involving motorized and nonmotorized standup scooters.

This is a 20-year cross-sectional study of the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System. Injuries from powered and unpowered standup scooters were included in this study if they involved the head, face, eyeball, mouth, or ear. Study predictors were obtained from both patient and injury characteristics. The study outcome was the probability of hospital admission from the emergency department. A multiple logistic regression model was created to model the probability of admission using all significant univariate predictors.

A total of 11,916 records were included in the present study, of which 9.5% involved motorized scooters. The proportion of motorized injuries more than tripled from 2014 (5.8%) to 2018 (22.1%). Motorized injuries occurred more often in older individuals (24.0 vs 8.5 years; P < .01). A greater proportion of motorized injuries involved the head (55.0 vs 36.9%; P < .01) and resulted in concussion (11.5 vs 5.6%; P < .01), fractures (6.7 vs 2.0%; P < .01), and other nonspecified internal organ injuries (31.1 vs 19.6%; P < .01). Motorized scooter injuries had more than triple the admission rate compared to nonmotorized injuries (13.9 vs 3.7%; P < .01). After controlling for potential confounders, injuries from motorized scooters still had double the odds of hospital admission (odds ratio, 2.03; P < .01).

Motorized standup scooters appear to cause more severe injuries than conventional nonmotorized scooters. The recent growth of rentable electric scooters may pose a future public health concern. Ride-sharing companies should ensure that customers are capable of safely and responsibly operating these vehicles.