Electric Personal MObility DEvices Surveillance (E-MODES) Study: Injury Presentations to Emergency Departments in Brisbane, Queensland

Objective: The rapid increase in e-mobility globally, including in Australia, has seen a concurrent increase in e-mobility-related injuries. Monitoring and understanding the patterns of injuries is essential to preserving community safety and making responsive and effective policy decisions regarding their safe use.

Methods: This study reports on the first phase of the E-MODES study, a proactive injury surveillance initiative to examine the incidence and nature of injuries, their circumstances, contributing factors, and treatment, presenting to three hospital emergency departments (EDs) in Brisbane, the first Australian city to trial shared e-scooters.

Results: During the 31-month study period, there were 1048 ED presentations related to e-mobility, the vast majority (90.8%) involving e-scooters, with males accounting for 64.3% of cases, the most common age group being 25-34 years, and weekends being the most common period of the week for presentations. The most common injury was fractures (37%), and the upper extremities and head/face were the most commonly injured body regions.

Conclusion: Contributing risk factors of alcohol use, not wearing a helmet, and speeding, were prevalent, though poorly recorded and only alcohol use proportions varied by age and gender, with males being more likely than females to have alcohol use reported. Recommendations to support e-mobility-related injury surveillance and safety outcomes include improved data standardisation and sharing.