ST.PETERSBURG, Fla. — The start of school is right around the corner, and that means many kids are likely going to be riding e-bikes or e-scooters to school.
For months, Tampa Bay 28, including anchor Lauren St. Germain, who covers medical news, has reported on crashes involving e-bikes or e-scooters and the serious injuries kids are getting.
Earlier this week, St. Germain met with Petra Stanton, who is the injury prevention program manager at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. She talked about the importance of kids having the right kind of helmet.
“One of the things that we are the most concerned about is traumatic brain injuries in children. It can be somewhat confusing because most helmets are rated by the consumer product safety to about 14-15 miles per hour. Well, the e-bikes and e-scooters may go faster than that, somewhere between 20-28 miles. So, it may even be double the speed. So, one of the things we like to share is make sure you have the proper helmet,” said Stanton.
She said the fit is just as important as the helmet itself, and it typically says "e-bike" or "e-scooter" on it.
Approved helmets will also say they meet the Dutch standard or NTA 8776. Stanton said the prices for these helmets are typically higher than a traditional bicycle helmet.
Earlier this summer, St. Germain had a conversation with an orthopedic surgeon highlighting the importance of proper safety gear. He told St. Germain the injuries he’s seeing after e-bike crashes are similar to the ones people get in motorcycle accidents or severe car crashes.
“The injuries are just getting worse and worse whether that’s kids just wrecking the bike itself or several of them who are the worst injured are hit by cars. It just leads to really severe injuries and some of them are not survivable,” explained Dr. Hassan Mir.
Dr. Mir also said the number of e-bike crashes now greatly outnumbers e-scooter crashes.
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