Austin trauma surgeon says 95% of traumatic scooter injuries involve alcohol

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Editor's Note: This story has been updated to reflect Dr. Aydelotte is the trauma medical director at Dell Seton Medical Center.

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.

"Safety comes first and always at Lime and we’re proud 99.98% of our rides globally end without reported incident. We use a variety of methods to discourage drunk riding, one of which is our partnership with Uber that allows people to choose either our vehicles or a rideshare all from the Uber app. We also communicate with our riders regularly about choosing not to ride our vehicles when drinking," a spokesperson from Lime said.