HealthFriday, November 13
Cincinnati Children's counted more than double the e-bike and e-scooter patients through August
The 5AM Covington team
If your kid has an e-bike or e-scooter on the wish list, here's a number to know. Cincinnati Children's trauma registry counted 84 patients through August, more than double the 39 counted in all of 2025. The figures combine both kinds of rides and leave out patients treated and released from the emergency room.
Eight months of 2026 beat all of 2025 for e-bike and e-scooter patients
Source: WKRC
View as table
| Value | |
|---|---|
| All of 2025 | 39 |
| Jan.–Aug. 2026 | 84 |
Dr. Wendy Pomerantz, a pediatric emergency medicine physician, says the injuries include broken arms and legs, plus liver, spleen, belly and chest injuries, along with head injuries because most people don't wear helmets. She says e-bike injuries are rising faster than e-scooter injuries, which have leveled off, and the hospital now sees these injuries several times a week.
- Pomerantz recommends no e-scooters for children under 16
- For e-bikes, she recommends a Class 1 model with pedal assistance
- She says dirt bike or motorcycle helmets beat bicycle helmets on e-bikes
Fewer than a quarter of the patients wore helmets
- 45%
- of registry patients were admitted to the hospital
- 23%
- of registry patients were wearing helmets
- 3
- children admitted with these injuries in 2021