Trauma surgeon describes daily e-scooter toll as crash victim's friend says death avoidable

Australia Broadcast Center

2 days ago

A friend of a 51-year-old man who died after being hit by an e-scooter on the weekend has criticised local and state governments for not further regulating e-rideables, saying the father's death was avoidable.
His comments come as the head of trauma services at Royal Perth Hospital separately laid bare the extent of e-scooter-related injuries, highlighting the lifelong impacts they can have on patients.
Pedestrian Thanh Phan was in Perth's CBD for dinner on Saturday night when he was struck by a hired e-scooter.
A 25-year-old UK tourist, Alicia Kemp, has been charged with causing death while driving dangerously under the influence of alcohol.
In response, the City of Perth yesterday suspended the hiring of e-scooters indefinitely.
Mr Phan's family friend Lee Carroll said that ban should be made permanent.
"E-scooters for hire are motorised vehicles that require no licence to operate and are often stationed outside bars and clubs, inviting use by people who may be intoxicated," he said.
"This is a dangerous and unacceptable situation.
"We call on the City of Perth and the minister for transport to take decisive action."
It came as the head of trauma services at Royal Perth Hospital told the ABC he and his team were seeing patients seriously injured by e-scooters every day.
'Our patients are experiencing lifetime consequences or not even surviving from injuries sustained on an e-scooter,' Dieter Weber told Stateline.
Mr Carroll pointed to that situation, saying it should have been enough of a trigger for governments to take action.
'Allowing motorised vehicles to share footpaths with pedestrians is fundamentally unsafe,' he said.
While not commenting on Mr Phan's death directly, Professor Weber said he wanted people to see e-scooter injuries as avoidable, especially by riders wearing helmets and not riding while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
"The thing that sticks out to me as a surgeon is sadly the number of families that we've seen at the bedside in tears with their loved ones tragically injured from these e-scooters," he told Stateline.
"The facilities here at the state trauma centre allow us to give our patients the best possible care, but sadly … the pathway to try to get back to as normal a life is not always possible with these terrible injuries that we're seeing.
"We're seeing the whole range of injuries from broken bones, significant internal organ injuries, brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, injuries that have not just immediate impact but then lasting lifelong effects on patients.
"It's this enormous group of patients that we've had to treat from injuries that are preventable."
Professor Weber welcomed the City of Perth's decision as a step towards an "informed discussion" about e-rideables and what role society wanted them to play.
"Sadly, I don't think we've fully understood the potential consequences of riding one of these vehicles," he said.
"Of course society is going to look at some of the benefits of e-scooters, but the harm, the risk, needs to be understood as well so that we can make an informed, balanced decision."
It was that risk of serious, life-altering injuries which Professor Weber — a trauma and general surgeon — most wanted policymakers to understand.
"Are these people able to get back into the community, back to their usual jobs?" he said.
"Or do they place an additional burden on our society as we have to nurse them through a remainder of a life in a nursing home, or whether they don't make it at all?"
While some suggest there is little difference between e-scooters and traditional bicycles, Professor Weber disagreed.
"They're being used by different people in different situations, potentially with different understandings," he said.
"The crashes can be equally bad, but one's battery power … presumably it's going to be at a higher energy, that's going to cause an impact and injury and the aftermath that we see on our clinical wards."
Research by Professor Weber and and his colleagues found that of 81 Western Australian patients who sustained serious e-scooter related injuries between 2017 and 2022, 40 per cent were not wearing a helmet and were four times more likely to sustain a head injury.
Around 35 per cent were under the influence of either drugs or alcohol.
He said while the "majority" of patients admitted to the state trauma centre were e-scooter riders, there was a "large group" who had been hit by the devices.
Earlier in the week, WA Transport Minister Rita Saffioti acknowledged: "We need to increase our compliance."
WA Police announced late yesterday they would be undertaking "state-wide targeted enforcement operations" in response to a number of incidents, including Mr Phan's death.
A spokesperson said they would be focusing on speeding, mobile phone use, riding under the influence, use of helmets, passenger limits and underage riders.
Police and Road Safety Minister Reece Whitby said he was open to making any change "that will make people safer".
"I want to consult with local government, and the operators about geo-fencing these devices so they can't be used in certain areas, at certain times, at certain speeds," he told ABC Radio Perth.
The shadow road safety minister called for the government to go further, describing the state's laws as "no longer fit for purpose".
"The rules we do have are being widely ignored, and compliance is almost non-existent," Julie Freeman said, pointing to a Road Safety Commission report which last month found a "concerning" lack of compliance.
Ms Freeman called for penalties for modifying e-scooters to increase their maximum speed, and a broader strengthening of penalties which the report found were "much lower" in WA compared to elsewhere in the nation.
She also called for urban planning to separate cars and pedestrians from e-rideables and bikes.
A study which looked at six European countries, published in 2023, found higher rates of e-scooter accidents in cities with a lower density of bike lanes.