Up to 70 per cent of e-scooter riders involved in serious accidents had been drinking, disturbing research reveals.
Most crashes happen at night and some riders are as young as 13. Surgeons who collated data on severe facial injuries caused by the machines have called for tougher implementation of drink-driving laws, and say riders should also be tested for drug use.
The findings, from a study of e-scooter injuries presenting to just one hospital over a 12-month period, are likely to add to pressure for a crackdown.
The Mail revealed this week that deaths and injuries from accidents involving electric scooters have soared.
There were 460 e-scooter collisions recorded across the UK in 2020, with 484 people – both riders and pedestrians – injured and one death.
A majority of e-scooter accidents are alcohol related, shocking new research has found (file photo)
There were 460 e-scooter collisions recorded across the UK in 2020, with 484 people injured and one death (file photo)
By 2022, the numbers had soared to 1,411 collisions, 1,502 injuries and 12 deaths.
Some 49 e-scooter riders were treated for broken jaws, facial lacerations and fractured eye sockets at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford between October 2022 and September 2023.
Twenty of them – or around 40 per cent – had drunk enough alcohol to affect their control of the vehicles. And this soared to 70 per cent among accidents occurring at night, according to the British Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.
