Children as young as nine hurt in growing number of e-scooter crashes

Some hospitals are seeing more and more children with injuries from e-scooters, a new review suggests , external .

Three trauma centres - Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield - say they have treated 477 under-16s, with the overall numbers of cases rising from fewer than 10 in 2019 to nearly 150 in 2024.

The average age of those injured was 12, with the youngest 9. Hardly any were wearing helmets.

The emergency department doctors are calling for laws to better protect children. Currently in the UK, there is no legal age restriction, speed limit or safety equipment requirement for the estimated 1.2m , external people who own private e-scooters.

Some e-scooters have a "turbo mode" setting, meaning they can reach speeds of around 28mph.

Recently, a UK teenager using one of these crashed and killed his 14-year-old friend on a busy road - one of 59 deaths involving e-scooters in the UK to date.

Jacob Calland, who was a passenger on the back, suffered irreversible brain injuries when it was struck by a BMW car in Wythenshawe, Manchester, on 19 March 2025.

Manchester Crown Court heard the teenager driving the e-scooter also sustained serious injuries, including a bleed on the brain and numerous bone fractures.