Six children have been placed on life support in the past fortnight at Children’s Health Ireland, Temple Street as a result of injuries sustained on e-scooters.
Doctors at the Dublin hospital say the rate of serious brain injuries they are seeing in children is unprecedented, describing it as an epidemic that is out of control, and have called for a total ban on e-scooter use, reports RTE.
In the past fortnight alone, six children have been admitted to intensive care at CHI Temple Street with traumatic brain injuries following e-scooter accidents.
Four remain on life support and some are in a critical condition, reports RTE.
Professor Darach Crimmins, Consultant Neurosurgeon at CHI Temple Street, described it as an epidemic and said he believes an outright ban on e-scooter use is necessary.
“I’ve been in operating with my colleagues, most nights on children. It’s now the single biggest cause of head trauma in children, and has been for the last year. Skull fractures, intracranial haemorrhage, surgery to relieve pressure on the brain, surgery to put in pressure monitors,” he said, reports RTE.
“All these children end up back on life support in our intensive care units. Some of them will be on life support for some weeks and some of them may not make it.
“None of these children that I’ve treated this week will be the same children ever again. Severe brain injuries will affect them physically, will affect them socially, will affect them intellectually, reports RTE.
“They will never reach the same level of educational attainment, or social attainment, that they would have had this not happened.”
Prof Crimmins said that “nearly half” of the hospital’s ICU beds are currently occupied by children who have sustained head injuries from e-scooter accidents, reports RTE.
“I’ve been in most nights, so that means I’m not operating as much as I should be during the day on children with other problems like congenital brain problems, brain tumours, etc. I’m quite angry. I’m doing these awful operations in the middle of the night, knowing this is completely preventable. And all it takes is a strong government to turn around and say, okay, enough is enough,” he said.
He added: “The legislation introduced two years ago has made no effect. There was a public health campaign last Christmas, the number of injuries has only increased since then. My adult colleagues in Beaumont are seeing the same thing in adults using these scooters, reports RTE.
“It’s the single biggest cause of cranial trauma for them as well. I think that e-scooters are inherently unsafe. I don’t think any legislation about their use and how you use them is, in any way, effective. And I think there should be an outright ban in high schools for everybody in public places.”
During 2025, over 400 children attended Emergency Departments in CHI facilities in Dublin with injuries from e-scooter use.
Dr Emer Ryan, paediatrician at CHI Temple Street, says the injuries, major and minor, can be long-lasting and life-altering, reports RTE.
“These children are coming off e-scooters like little catapults. Their skulls are crushed against the pavement. They’re crushed against the lamp post. They damage their internal organs, and they’re life changing,” she said.
She added: “There’s hundreds coming through the Emergency Department with minor injuries. We’ve had genital trauma, we’ve had abdominal trauma, joints that aren’t useable again, like their knee joints. Lots of lads playing football who won’t have a football career anymore, reports RTE.
“But the brain injuries are with us for a long time and then need a very long time trying to get back to some sort of life that they would have had before. There’s some that have devastating injuries and that are near death and will have a lifelong disability.”
Dr Ryan says the problem of e-scooter injuries is particularly pronounced in families where e-scooters may be used by adults because they do not have other modes of transport.
“We see children from babies up in Temple Street, and we see some of the children again years later, and the mothers of these children are so protective of them when they’re small, they’re worried about their development and their future, and what they might achieve or not achieve,” she said, reports RTE.
She added: “They drop the guard when it comes to e-scooters, and I’m surprised as parents that we haven’t tried to protect them more, but also as a society. They’ve lost their ability to learn from brain injuries. They’re losing out on the life that they would have had. It’s affecting some parts of the city and not affecting others, and I think we’re not shouting loud enough for the people that it affects.”
Two years since a ban on e-scooters for under-16s came into force, doctors at CHI Temple Street say they don’t believe it is working and have called for an outright ban on e-scooter use.
Dr Irwin Gill, Consultant Paediatrician in Neurodisability, called on the Government to act urgently, reports RTE.
“It’s illegal to be on an e-scooter if you’re under the age of 16. We’d obviously like to see as much enforcement of existing legislation as is possible. That appears to be extremely challenging at the moment, and the gardaà have been speaking about that,” Dr Gill said.
“We’re calling on politicians now for a more meaningful and significant response. Children are not safe on our roads at the moment, and we’re seeing potentially life-changing injuries, reports RTE.
“It’s time for action at this point and passing it on to individuals for personal responsibility to make the right choices is not sufficient. We need a bigger response now.”
“We’re seeing children who are six months, 12 months, 18 months on, from their injuries, coming back to clinics now, struggling in school, struggling to meet their potential, having mental health difficulties, losing their peer groups, reports RTE.
“They never have the future, some of them, that they would have had otherwise. We can’t undo a brain injury once it happens. So prevention of the injuries in the first place is the best thing we have. We’re here working in the hospital. We can’t do that from here. We need help. We need parents to make smart decisions. We need politicians to make braver decisions.”
“In the last just over 24 months, we’ve had 36 children in, spending an average of three weeks in hospital. It’s over 700 bed days accounted for by children with e-scooters. Almost half of our intensive care unit, at the moment, is accounted for, reports RTE.
“There are knock-on consequences for other children and families on a service that’s already overstretched. It’s absolutely out of control. I’m very worried and very sad and increasingly angry and frustrated. I think we cannot continue as we are. If nothing changes, nothing is going to change.”
He continued: “For parents, they need to know that they shouldn’t be buying e-scooters for children who are under the age of 16. It is illegal for them to be on them. If you have one in your house, find a way to get rid of it. Don’t consider buying one. And if you know that they’re out and about in peer groups, we’ve had plenty of children who were injured using e-scooters that were not bought for them by their parents, and were not their own, reports RTE.
“If they’re out and about in peer groups, have the conversation with your children, about why it’s dangerous to be on them. It’s not an easy message. Nobody likes to be telling teenagers not to do things that they enjoy to do. The consequences are drastic and potentially life-changing,” reports RTE.
Tánaiste Simon Harris said there is a “real obligation” on the Government to do more around e-scooter safety.
He said measures have been taken, such as making it illegal for children under the age of 16 to use them, but acknowledged there have been significant enforcement issues, reports RTE.
He also said that a lack of an ability to register the e-scooters is part of the challenge, and that the way to address this was for the Department of Transport to bring forward policy proposals.
“From a purely road safety point of view, we have to take a very, very active position in relation to do this, and we intend to, and we’ve seen only in recent days more horror on our roads in relation to e-scooter accidents,” he said, reports RTE.
The Garda Representative Association also called for gardaà to be trained to pursue e-scooters to avoid both injury or prosecution, saying gardaà currently do not have the resources or protection to do so.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with David McCullagh, GRA representative JohnJoe O’Connell said it is also an identical problem with scramblers, reports RTE.
“I have had calls from members across the country who in their attempts to stop e-scooters are finding themselves having prosecutions initiated against them under the Road Traffic Act,” he said.
“We are gone beyond what common sense is, our members are trying their best and they are finding themselves injured and prosecuted,” he said, reports RTE.
In February, Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly said he was examining the possibility of training for gardaà when in pursuit of suspects on e-scooters and other vehicles.
He acknowledged the difficulties associated with pursuing someone on two-wheel vehicles such as e-scooters, motorcycles and scramblers, but said he was “adamant” that gardaà must have the correct equipment and training to carry out their jobs, reports RTE.
Mr O’Connell said the number of e-scooters on the road had multiplied “infinitum.”
“For you as somebody who is adamant not to stop. It is very hard and very worrying for the public and our members,” he said, reports RTE.
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