Emergency doctor gives warning in wake of growing number of e-scooter injuries – CTV
August 25, 2025
An emergency physician is recommending children not ride e-scooters and calls on adult riders to wear helmets, as well as slow down while riding, amid an increase in hospitalizations over the past year.
“These are vehicles so no one under 16 should be riding them. It’s tragic that we’re seeing small children have bad injuries. These are fast, potentially dangerous vehicles,” Dr. Steven Friedman, a Toronto-based emergency physican, said in an interview with CTV Your Morning last week.
A July report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information showed a 32 per cent increase in reported e-scooter hospitalizations over one year, rising to 498 from 375.
Friedman said hospitals are seeing many types of injuries, including bleeding brains, smashed faces, as well as broken skulls, ribs, knees, pelvis and elbows.
While micromobility devices like e-scooters, bicycles and electronic bikes have become more popular and less expensive, appealing to people in congested cities, he added, municipalities have no control on who can buy them. However, they can control who operates them.
