More Qld e-scooters crashing, say RACQ, RBWH Foundation

New data has revealed the day and time most e-scooter crashes occur in Queensland, with workers’ compensation claims tripling over the past three year.

E-scooter crashes have tripled. Picture: Richard Walker

More e-scooter crashes are happening on the morning commute as workers’ compensation claims triple over the past three years, new data has revealed.

Research from a project funded by RACQ and the RBWH Foundation through the Jamieson Trauma Institute (JTI) using figures from the Queensland Office of Industrial Relations has shown Tuesdays are the most common days for a crash to occur.

“The data shows 36 per cent of e-scooter crashes are occurring on the way to work and 29 per cent are happening on the way home,” principal technical researcher Andrew Kirk said.

“It also revealed Tuesdays are the most common day for an e-scooter crash.”

JTI Researcher Professor Kirsten Vallmuur said 58 per cent of the crashes occurred from Tuesday to Thursday.

The data showed workers compensation claims for e-scooter crashes had tripled over the past three years.

“There were 421 e-scooter-related workers compensation claims made between December

2018 and October 2022,” Professor Vallmuur said.

A new study has shown which days are the most common for crashes to occur.

“An average of almost 16 claims were made every month in 2022, up from less than five per month in 2019.”

The majority of compensation claims were made by males, the most common age group of

claimants was 25-to-34-year-olds (35 per cent), followed by 35 to 44-year-olds (26 per cent).

Professor Vallmuur said 90 per cent of people making claims were riders, while 10 per cent were other road users like pedestrians and cyclists.

“The fact the numbers are rising, we are obviously seeing more people using scooters, I think it is an interesting source of data,” she said.

The latest statistics were a timely reminder to ride safely with RACQ urging electric scooter riders to give themselves extra time to get to work.

“We all know how easy it is to run out of time in the morning and we’re often scrambling to get into the office or wherever we may need to be,” Mr Kirk said.

Tuesday is the day most e-scooter crashes tend to occur.

“Make sure you’re allowing extra time for your commute or accept that it’s better to be a couple of minutes late than seriously injure yourself and end up in hospital.

“Make sure you are aware the rules and regulations, the maximum speeds on footpaths changed last year to 12km/h an hour on footpaths.”

Mr Kirk said through previous surveys being done, a number of people surveyed had their e-scooter modified to go above the 25km/h speed.

“That’s quite disturbing,” he said. “It’s imperative to stick to those limits; the reason being an e-scooter has such small wheels (so) if you are going at a reasonable speed at a footpath and hit a pothole or something, injury data has shown that upper limbs, face and head injuries are the main sorts of injuries because you are going to end up going over the handle bars and into the ground.”