The electric scooter hit the sandblasting sand left on the street and went under. Jerry Riikonen a short trip to a cousin’s house for pizza in Helsinki’s Töölö ended with an ambulance ride to the hospital. The doctor found three fractures on the face. In addition, he had suffered a concussion. In an operation lasting more than three hours, the eye and cheek areas were saved, but the memory of the face was left with nerve damage that has taken away part of the sense of touch. There is no certainty if the sensation will ever return.
Riikonen has talked about the accident that happened in the spring of 2022, among other things, in an interview with MTV news. He hoped that the use of “scooters” would be monitored more closely and that at least the use of a helmet would be required.
A similar accident happened Taavi to Myyryläinenwho was close to dying. He fell on the way home from a night out in Mikkeli, when the rented skateboard hit a pothole in the asphalt. Luckily for him, a taxi driver happened to call for help. At the hospital, a brain hemorrhage was diagnosed and the young man was rushed to urgent surgery. Myyrylainen was in the hospital for almost a month, first in the intensive care unit for several days and then in rehabilitation.
Myyryläinen is reminded of the accident by a surgery scar and a permanent brain injury. A couple of years after the accident, he was of the opinion in an interview with Iltalehti that there was no need to go faster than 10 kilometers per hour on electric scooters.
Like Riikonen and Myyryläinen, many others have been injured in similar accidents. Numerous cases have also been reported in public. In addition, it is known that five people have died in electric scooter accidents in recent years.
This summer has been particularly dark, as three people have already lost their lives. The first was a 12-year-old girl who was riding a board with two other girls and collided with a car at the crosswalk in Vantaa’s Myyrmäki in June. The other was a 14-year-old boy who fell on a board in Helsinki’s Kaivopuisto. The third was an adult man who got into a crash with another e-boarder in Leppävaara, Espoo, the other week.
Candles were brought to the Leppävaara crash site in Espoo in memory of the man who died in a kickboard accident. Sami Salmela
The study published last summer by Husi’s doctor and researcher concluded the same thing that many doctors had already said in several interviews: the majority of injuries sustained when falling on an electric scooter are in the head and upper limbs. According to the study, six percent of the injured had used a helmet the previous year, and only two the previous year.
Husi’s study also concluded that the restrictions on electric scooters that came into force in Helsinki in the fall of 2021 had reduced the number of patients ending up in the hospital’s emergency room. With the restrictions that the doctors so desperately wanted, the speed of rental boards was reduced and rentals were completely prevented on weekend nights.
Despite the restrictions, there were still more than 300 patients injured in skateboarding accidents who ended up in the emergency room in Helsinki in January-August. The number included only those who rode a rental board, not those who fell with their own equipment.
In Tampere, it was found that the nighttime restrictions on electric scooters have not been effective. In a study published last summer by Tampere University Hospital (Tays) and the city of Tampere, patients and injuries from four summers between 2019 and 2022 were investigated. According to the study, the number of accidents remained the same despite the restrictions, and the number of serious accidents even increased.
Bystanders who are still injured in the crash have their own numbers, such as an 86-year-old woman who was hit by a young woman riding a board for the first time in Tampere.
Very few e-scooter renters wear helmets, even though head injuries are very common when falling on the boards. Jussi Eskola
According to the law, an electric scooter can be driven in traffic at a maximum speed of 25 kilometers per hour. If the board goes faster, it is considered a moped or motorcycle and must be registered and obtain traffic insurance and a driving license. However, there are boards in shops that can go up to almost a hundred kilometers per hour without tuning. Last week, a video spread on social media in which a young man pulls up to a hundred in busy traffic on Ring Road I.
Thinking with common sense, it seems clear that an electric scooter equipped with very small wheels and accelerating much faster compared to a bicycle will cause more accidents than bicycles in the future. E-boards have also grown wildly in popularity and, based on the cityscape, have overtaken e.g. city bikes in the number of users.
Boards are marketed as an “ecological, fun and convenient” way to move. This seems to sink in especially with young city dwellers, and the excitement of moving around also attracts them. In addition, many people ride their boards drunk. In a survey commissioned by the insurance company Lähitapiola at the beginning of the year, only a tenth of the respondents said that they had never driven while intoxicated. The same trend was confirmed to Iltalehti by the Traffic Safety Manager of the Accident Information Institute Esa Rätyaccording to which the most common reason behind accidents requiring hospital treatment is intoxication.
Boards strongly divide opinions, and along with those who use them enthusiastically, at the other extreme, there are many who are angered and worried by the passing of an electric device right next to them or completely careless parking of boards.
Electric boards are especially used by young adults and school-age children. Several companies have set an age limit of 18 years for boards that can be rented, but in practice it is currently not possible to control the matter. Children and minors manage to use the devices with the help of their parents or their own payment cards.
The police and Liikenneturva again recently announced that parents are responsible for renting boards. The boards bought in the store still have their own chapter. Inspector Hand Control In an interview with Iltalehti, the Länsi-Uusimaa police asked to think about what the hell is the reason for getting a high-speed power board for the next generation.
Screenshot from a video that has spread on social media, where a young man rides an electric scooter at a speed of up to one hundred kilometers per hour in the Ring I tunnel in Espoo. Screenshot
At least in the capital region, you can see two or even more minors using an electric board in traffic every day. It is not a rare phenomenon, but a general habit of young people. A helmet user, on the other hand, is a great rarity. In the current summer season, more and more adults have also been seen in traffic, carrying a child standing in front of them on a board.
Chief Commissioner Dennis Pasterstein Helsinki police reminded in an interview with Iltalehti, after Myyrmäki’s fatal accident, that the ride-hailer takes on a huge responsibility for others, because they have no chance to support themselves. In addition, controlling the board is much more difficult. Pasterstein considered the Myyrmäki accident to be a very sad event, but was also surprised that a similar serious ride-hailing accident had not happened before.
Liikenneturva contact manager Elias Ruutti in an interview with Iltalehti, one of the risks of using electric scooters was also the minute-based pricing of rental boards, which encourages you to ride as hard as possible.
In addition to legal devices, the shops also offer high-speed, high-performance electric scooters. According to the police, the devices are also easy to tune to run fast. Tiina Somerpuro / KL
The current restrictions on rental boards were only achieved when doctors and numerous citizens had demanded them many times and several wild accident statistics had been published. However, not much has happened since then. Accidents still happen all the time.
It is written into the current government’s program that legislation related to electric scooters and other “micromobility” is now going to be created. Minister of Transport and Communications Lulu Wrist (ps) stated in a press release in June that the number of accidents must be reduced. The Ministry of Transport’s working group has been thinking about the issue since last fall, and the intention is now to give municipalities additional powers to guide e-boarding and the police to intervene in them. For example, a blood alcohol limit has been promised. The new laws are planned to come into effect by next summer.
It is clear that if the truly wild nature of electric kickboarding is not dealt with decisively soon, there will be many more serious injuries and even deaths. And they happen above all to young people and children.
Liikenneturva and large companies that rent out boards have proposed an arrangement in use in many big cities, in which business licenses are distributed to the industry and companies are put out to tender. For a business license, certain criteria should be met, which could curb hitchhiking, drunk driving, parking of boards and also their excessive number.
Several fatalities in a short period of time and numerous serious injuries are simply too much. Now is the time to use hard methods and they must be found from the direction of the government. The matter cannot be outsourced only to municipalities or the police. Rental companies must be brought under control and regulated, and boards sold in stores must be subject to stricter regulations. You could also think about how on earth over-efficient boards could be completely removed from sale. The helmet requirement, blood alcohol level and weight limit will hopefully be in force as soon as possible. Next summer is still far away.
If nothing else works, then you have to consider the model of Paris and Melbourne in Helsinki and elsewhere, where rental boards are completely banned. At least you can learn from the restriction models of Copenhagen, London and other European cities and the requirements set for rental companies.
In June’s Turma in Myyrmäki, Vantaa, there were three young girls riding one electric scooter. Reader’s photo
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