Austin ER doctor says 95% of traumatic scooter injuries involve alcohol

AUSTIN (KXAN) – Amid increases in emergency room visits from riders using e-bikes and scooters while intoxicated, Ascension Seton is urging people to find other ways to get home if they have been drinking alcohol. 

Dr. Jayson Aydelotte, trauma medical director at Dell Seton Medical Center, said that as the number of scooters and e-bikes have increased around Austin, so have the number of riders who have injured themselves while using them.

One common characteristic of people who end up in the hospital after riding a scooter or e-bike is alcohol, Aydelotte said.

“Since the scooters have come around, and the bikes too, if you get in an accident bad enough to give you an injury [and] get admitted to the hospital, 95% of those people have been drinking too much,” Aydelotte said. 

E-bikes and scooters started appearing on Austin streets in 2018. Many tout the devices as a convenient and environmentally friendly means of transit to get through denser parts of the city. Others have suggested that they may be more dangerous than beneficial. 

Aydelotte, who admitted to enjoying electric scooter rides from time to time, said these devices are not necessarily unsafe, but added that perhaps more could be done to deter people from taking a ride while inebriated. 

“People who get really injured – whether they die or their life has changed in a way that they're never the same again –  we've seen quite a few of those cases,” Aydelotte said. 

“Sadly, you know who it happens to a lot, are visitors to our city,” he continued. “The scooters are kind of ubiquitous [downtown] and easy to rent. If you've been drinking, it just seems like a fun thing to do."

Aydelotte said he thought the messaging on some applications, like Lime, could be better at posting messages encouraging people to take an alternative mode of transportation, such as an Uber, if they have been drinking. 

“I bet you we would see a decrease in the number of bad things that come through our hospital – no doubt about it,” he said.

KXAN reached out to the three companies that operate scooters and e-bikes in Austin: Bird, Lime and LINK. We'll update the story once we hear back.