• Szymon Rzepczyk, Ksenia Pawlas, Aleksandra Borowska-Solonynko, Karol Karnecki, Tomasz Cywka, Artur Moskała, Rafał Skowronek, Sławomir Majdanik, Michał Szeremeta, Anna Dropiewska-Nowak, Agnieszka Jurczyk, Czesław Żaba, and Tomasz Jurek.
• Department of Forensic Medicine, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Rokietnicka 10 60-806 Poznań, Poland. Electronic address: szymon.rzepczyk@interia.eu.
• Injury. 2024 Nov 1; 55 (11): 111836111836.

AbstractWith the introduction of mobile applications that allow short-term rentals, electric scooters (e-scooters) are gaining popularity as a means of micromobility in urban areas. The aim of the study was to assess the circumstances and causes of death in traffic accidents involving electric scooters in Poland. The inclusion criteria for the study were met by 9 cases (7 M,2F; mean age: 40.3 years). Accidents usually occur during working days during the warm months, especially during the morning traffic rush hour. Usually, these accidents involved another vehicle (4/9 cases). In addition, the victim was most often the driver (8/9 cases) and rarely uses a helmet (1/9 cases). In only two cases did the test reveal the presence of alcohol in the blood at the time of the accident. In studied cases, head injuries occurred in every case, and injuries to the limbs and chest occurred in more than half of the cases. Within the head, in addition to minor injuries like bruises and epidermal abrasions, skull fractures, and intracranial bleedings predominated. Similar minor injuries were also observed in the extremities, with significant fractures observed only in the lower extremities. Among chest injuries, lung contusions predominated. The most common cause of death was craniocerebral injury (6/9 cases), but there were two deaths each from chest injuries and polytrauma. To increase the safety of e-scooter users, it is recommended that measures be taken to educate users about the potential risks of using the vehicle and that measures be taken to increase the use of helmets, e.g. through legislative action. Further studies involving larger study groups are needed to assess the correlation between potential risk factors and the fatal outcome of the accident.Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

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