For years, advertising campaigns have hammered home the message not to drink and drive – but a new international study suggests that idea should also extend to e-scooters.

Ninety-one percent of injuries people had while riding an e-scooter at night happened after the rider had been drinking, according to a Norwegian study published this week. 

Researchers in Oslo compared around 1000 emergency department visits for e-scooter crashes with close to 3000 injuries from bicycle accidents.

They found those who were injured on e-scooters were more likely to be younger than cyclists, more likely to be hurt at night, more likely to have been drinking beforehand and less likely to be wearing a helmet. 

Only 2.1% of people injured while riding an e-scooter wore a helmet compared to 62.2% of injured cyclists.

Most of the injured e-scooter riders were aged between 20 to 40.

Most e-scooter injuries took place in the evening and of those incidents, 91.3% of those hurt said they were intoxicated at the time.

Researchers say preventive measures could help reduce such high rates of being hurt while drunk in charge of a scooter. 

Those measures include awareness campaigns, regulating the availability of e-scooters at night, having stricter helmet and alcohol policies, and improving infrastructure.

Younger New Zealanders make up most of ACC’s e-scooter-related claims

ACC has so far paid out more than $5.2 million in claims relating to e-scooter injuries for 2022.

While ACC data on e-scooter injuries doesn’t break down what time of day accidents take place or whether alcohol was involved, the statistics show that younger people make up most e-scooter-related claims.

The age range with the highest claims between 2018, when e-scooters were first introduced to New Zealand’s streets, and 2021 was 15 to 34. 

People in their mid-20s have the most expensive ACC claims.

An ACC spokesperson says nearly three quarters of claims over those three years related to nothing more than serious cuts.

The total number of e-scooter injury claims in New Zealand spiked in 2019, with much lower numbers recorded in 2020, especially during the Covid-19 lockdowns. 

However, the number of claims relating to e-scooter injuries began to climb again towards the end of 2021. 

ACC’s advice for people using e-scooters includes wearing a helmet, starting off slow if you’ve never been on a scooter before and making sure to give others plenty of space on footpaths.

And if this research is anything to go by, “don’t drink and scoot” should probably be added to that list too.

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