The use of ebikes and escooters has exploded. Advances in battery technology made these vehicles practical for commuters and recreational users. Companies created ebike and escooter rental systems in most major cities for anyone who wants to ride one but cannot afford to buy it.
This increase in popularity has also led to a rise in ebike and escooter accidents. Statistics are difficult to find because many cities and states group ebikes and escooters with conventional bikes and scooters in their crash reporting systems. As a result, it’s difficult to know exactly how many ebike and escooter accidents per year injure or kill riders.
Your right to personal injury compensation depends on how your injuries happened. Thus, understanding the causes of these crashes and the injuries that typically result will help riders injured in ebike and escooter accidents pursue compensation for their injuries.
Statistics for Ebike and Escooter Accidents
The scope of the problem is significant. A study by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission found the following numbers for the six years between 2017 and 2022:
- Approximately 169,300 emergency room visits by escooter riders
- Approximately 53,200 emergency room visits by ebike riders
These numbers give an annual average of 28,216 escooter injuries and 8,866 ebike injuries. However, this number is misleading because the injury numbers have increased annually.
The study also found 111 escooter deaths and 104 ebike deaths over the same period. These numbers give an average of 18.5 escooter deaths and 17.3 ebike deaths per year.
This difference raises an interesting question. Why do these two devices have roughly the same number of deaths when over three times as many people suffer injuries on escooters as on ebikes? The answer comes in the causes of these crashes.
Causes of Ebike and Escooter Injuries
A small-scale study in Washington, D.C., found that electric scooter accidents differ significantly from ebike accidents. Ebike injuries tend to happen on roads, and over 37% involve motor vehicles. In other words, ebike accidents are mostly traffic-related. Since ebikes are typically hit in car accidents, they result in many more deaths.
By contrast, escooter accidents are less likely to happen on roads or involve motor vehicles. Instead, these accidents occur more often on sidewalks, parking lots or trails. Rather than getting hit by cars, escooter riders tend to suffer injuries when they hit pedestrians or lose control while riding.
Across all micro-mobility devices including ebikes, escooters and hoverboards, some common causes of accidents related to the rider include the following:
- Inattention
- Inexperience
- Loss of control
Roughly 13% of escooter crashes and 37.7% of ebike crashes involve motor vehicles. Driver-related causes of these crashes include:
- Distracted driving
- Inattentional blindness
- Misjudging the distance or speed of the ebike or escooter
Many drivers are unfamiliar with the capabilities and limitations of ebikes and escooters. These devices also operate very quietly. Some crashes happen when inattentive drivers fail to spot these devices on the road even when they are in plain sight.
