E-Scooters have been the talk of green urban transport since the mid 2010's, being encouraged by climate change groups to replace urban roads previously taken up by cars.
But
the public's support for E-Scooters ends there, according to recent
polls and data.
Private
E-Scooter ownership has been restricted to those holding appropriate
licenses following numerous incidents between 2020 and present day of
owners irresponsibly riding them in the green-targeted urban areas.
E-Scooters
along with bikes are now being seen as a public inconvenience,
following many near misses between riders and the general public.
But
number the riders and/or members of the general public who do get hit
and injured, has risen sharply in 2 years.
In
2020, 516 injuries due to E-Scooter crashes were reported to the NHS.
In
2021, 886 injuries due to E-Scooter crashes were reported to the NHS.
In
2022 so far, roughly 172 injuries due to E-Scooter crashes have been
reported to the NHS.
Injures
sustained in these needless accidents include:
Internal
Bleeding.
Broken
Bones.
Sprained
Ankles and Wrists.
Chipped,
Broken, and Missing Teeth.
Deep
Cuts.
Concussions.
Comas.
Paralysis.
Brain
Damage.
Severed
Fingers.
Broken
and Dislocated Jaws.
Broken
Noses.
And tragically for 931 individuals, death.
Teenagers have only exasperated the problem, with many injures and deaths happening to them as a result of callus riding, doing "Sick Tricks" in public areas with the E-Scooters, and having more than one person riding on the E-Scooter at a time.
The
NHS reported that each E-Scooter injury, per patient, costs the
health service between £1,000 ($1,300) and £10,000 ($13,000),
depending on the injury(s) sustained.
E-Scooters
don't just injure and kill pedestrians and riders alike, but they're
also littered everywhere.
Outside of the proper charging stations they've been found hanging in trees, dismounted in the middle of busy side walks, abandoned on the side of roads, parked in spaces reserved for cars, submerged in rivers and canals, left in the lobbies of apartment and office buildings, laying in people's yards, illegally parked in emergency service reserved spaces, dropped at the reception areas in restaurants, blocking entry to narrow pathways and public bathrooms, cast away in ally ways, and blocking up bus stops just to name a few.
Pedestrians have reported tripping over improperly placed E-Scooters, giving them a shock or injuring them requiring surgery.
The
government has taken steps to avoid all this from happening, like the
aforementioned regulations on private E-Scooter ownership along with
introducing special E-Scooter speed limits and making them use bike
lanes unless there are none in the area.
It's not just the UK suffering from E-Scooter problems, in Norway a 68 year old from Oslo was killed after an E-Scooter accident and in California a woman was killed in Ocean Beach after her E-Scooter crashed into a moving car.
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