E-scooters: More than 120 children in Belfast injured in last year

Davison said e-scooters have become a “real problem” for parents, patients, the community and healthcare, and can result in “life-changing and life-threatening” injuries.

Ninety-three children attended hospitals in the Belfast Trust in the last year for e-scooter injuries and over a quarter of them had fractures or head injuries warranting investigation and CT scans.

“Less than 10% are wearing helmets and they’re mostly males between the age of 10 to 12,” Davison added.

“I’ve been treating children with major head injuries requiring surgical intervention, admission, and we’re seeing major wounds as well from the e-bike where children are needing to go to theatre for exploration of those wounds and surgical intervention.

“And in the last few months also, we’ve seen an increasing number of bystander injuries.

“So not only are the children on the e-scooter being injured, now it’s bystanders such as toddlers who are just walking on the pavement.”