(Spirit Lake)– Area healthcare providers say they’re seeing a significant increase in injuries from crashes involving E-bikes and scooters. Theresa Pokorny is the Director of Emergency Services at Lakes Regional Healthcare in Spirit Lake. She says some of those have been serious…
“Outside of kind of the normal injuries, the potential broken arms, things like that, we’re seeing a lot more head injuries recently where individuals are suffering brain bleed type of injuries due to the impact from falls, crashes, things of that nature. We’re actually seeing that these injuries are occurring even with helmets. Some of it could be attributed to the speed at which these accidents are occurring. Some of these bikes can go pretty fast and so instead of a normal pedal bike where you’re going a few miles-per-hour, they’re occurring at much higher speeds which then even when we’re hitting heads with helmets, that we’re seeing some damage with that.”
She adds the injuries cover all age brackets, not just kids…
“We’re actually seeing more middle aged to older adults recently with these head injury types. With little kids we’re seeing some injuries to arms, extremities, things of that nature, but as we get older we are more prone to brain bleeds so we’re actually seeing those types of things being in our older population.”
Pokorny says brain bleeds can be serious if not treated in timely manner…
“Oftentimes it requires transferring to facilities such as Avera to follow up with neurology, so it’s not just the fact that we’re seeing these patients in our Emergency Department, it’s often leading to needing a higher level of care at another facility.”
Pokorny offers these safety tips…
“Well for sure continue to wear helmets. We do see that it helps with the other issues. For instance, it can help prevent a fractured skull that might lead to just bleeding, so we want people to be wearing helmets. We also want people to be mindful. You know we see sometimes people hitting gravel, just like motorcycles and stuff. When it’s that different terrain, sometimes those tires don’t grip as well so it’s causing accidents. I would say slowing speeds and conditions going around curves, when you’re getting to intersections. We also want people to be comfortable riding them. You know if you’re not very safe or comfortable with riding a bike, you should probably prevent utilizing E-bikes and things like that just because of those increased speeds. And so just making sure that this isn’t the first time and that you’ve undergone proper precautions to be safe on them.”
She says that while they’re pleased to see people getting exercise and enjoying the outdoors, that it’s also important they’re being safe.
