Sixty per cent of e-scooter users admitted to hospital suffer from head injuries, a study by the Belgian Institute for Road Safety, Vias, revealed on Thursday.
Among these patients, 24% also sustain injuries to their hips and thighs.
The study examines hospital data related to e-scooter users and general road accident admissions. Vias analysed the data to determine the types of injuries based on transportation modes.
In Belgium, nearly 15,000 people are hospitalised due to road accidents each year, with 23% having serious injuries.
Severe road accident victims, such as those with skull fractures, hip injuries, or spinal damage, constitute about 23% of hospitalised cases, which totalled 14,450 in 2022.
The number decreased by 19% over the past decade, from 4,191 in 2013 to 3,386 in 2022.
Contrary to police records, the total number of road accident hospitalisations is four times higher than the number of serious injuries reported by the police.
Cyclists are the only road users with an increasing number of serious injuries each year, according to Vias. They represent the largest group of seriously injured individuals across all age categories.
“One in two severely injured road accident victims is a cyclist,” the institute summarised.
Their share of total serious injuries has also increased, accounting for 49 per cent in 2022, up from 37 per cent in 2016.
