Data showing fewer children are being hurt while riding e-scooters and e-bikes has prompted Queensland’s peak doctor association to urge the state government to go further and ban under-16s from riding the devices altogether.
On Tuesday, the state government released figures on the number of patients admitted to the Queensland Children’s Hospital since the crackdown earlier this year, which stopped short of outright banning children from the devices.
Under the laws, which came into effect from July 1, riders aged 12 to 17 can use compliant e-bikes and e-scooters, but must be supervised by an adult.
Just seven children were admitted between July and September for more than 24 hours for serious e-scooter or e-bike incidents, compared with 18 between January and March, and 16 from April to June.
Professor Roy Kimble, the director of paediatric surgery, burns and trauma at the Queensland Children’s Hospital, said the data only showed the first three months since laws had changed.
“But I’m very pleased to say that there has been a rapid decline in the number of children into this hospital after riding e-scooters and e-bikes,” he said.
AMA Queensland, the peak body for Queensland doctors, issued a call on Wednesday for the crackdown to go further.
“The only safe position to take is to restrict kids to kid-powered devices only and leave the electric ones for when they’ve built more awareness around road rules,” president Erica Gannon said.
“AMA Queensland told the parliamentary inquiry into e-mobility devices the best policy was a total ban on under-16s, and we still believe that.
“Injuries of this nature are incredibly traumatic and have a huge ripple effect on the patient’s family, friends, community and the health professionals who treat them.”
Gannon said riding e-mobility devices was different from ordinary pushbikes or scooters, and affected how riders behaved.
“The physical effort required to ride, accelerate and maintain higher speeds on a conventional bicycle can influence how riders behave around traffic and when entering and exiting streets, riding on footpaths and giving way to other road users,” she said.