Doctors see growing number of scooter-related injuries

Dockless scooters have taken over Austin.

With the sudden popularity in the motorized scooters emergency room doctors have reported seeing more scooter-related injuries.

Last week a woman was badly seriously injured after crashing a dockless electric scooter in south Austin.  

The woman in her 50's was taken to Dell Seton Medical Center with critical injuries. 

Doctors at Seton said they're seeing more cases of people being injured on these dockless scooters.

"Those things are going 15 miles an hour and from my reading I haven't been on one but they stop abruptly they're hard to maneuver and they can be very dangerous," said doctor Robert Buchanan Dell Seton Medical Chief of Neurosurgery.

The Transportation Department published an online survey on the city's website asking for opinions on everything from where people should drop them off, to safety.

Doctors said so far they've seen three patients who have suffered major head injuries within the last couple of weeks. 
Along with people getting hit by cars while riding the scooter.

"I think that people don't realize their kind of having fun on the scooter doing what they're doing but not really realizing what else is on the road with them," said Dr. Christopher Ziebell, Dell Seton Medical Center ER Medical Director. 

They're encouraging people who take a ride on one of the scooters to start taking more safety precautions.  Such as wearing a helmet.

"Helmets save lives and helmets save brains and so we recommend anybody that is on any motorized vehicle whether a motorcycle or a scooter or moped they should wear a helmet," said Buchanan.

Currently, Texas does not have a statewide helmet law. 

However, doctors agree that shouldn't deter a person from wearing a helmet on the roads. 

"There are countless stories of people who have had their lives saved by wearing a helmet. They're in a terrible accident they wake up from the accident and their helmet is cracked in half but their alive," said Buchanan. According to Ziebell, there have been no reported deaths in Austin associated with the motorized scooters. The Austin City Council has created a Dockless Mobility Community Survey for public feedback on the matter. That is now open for public feedback through Aug. 31, 2018.

Provide your feedback and share the survey by clicking here.