SEATTLE — With heavy traffic in downtown areas, e-scooters are an increasingly popular way to move around.
But in Seattle, injuries involving e-scooters are also increasing.
“As soon as I took a step onto the sidewalk, I didn’t even have a chance to react – I just got plastered by a Lime scooter traveling at a high rate of speed,” said John Stamstad, who was hit by an e-scooter on Second Avenue last month.
The 59-year-old was knocked to the ground, then realized he couldn’t get up.
“I started thinking I might be injured pretty badly. I should probably document what’s going on here and as soon as I pulled up my phone, he turned away and hopped on a scooter and took off up the street,” said Stamstad.
He was taken to Harborview Medical Center and had surgery for a broken hip.
In the hospital, Stamstad was surprised to hear similar stories from nurses.
“Every one of them had a story of the crazy high number of scooter accidents that happen. It’s like it’s a regular daily occurrence in their ER,” he said.
In fact, a recent report from the Washington Traffic Safety Commission shows a sharp increase in e-scooter-related injuries in Seattle since 2020.
“We’ve seen increases of almost 36% from last year, and I would expect that we’re going to see higher numbers this year. It really is going up and these are serious injuries,” said Dr. Beth Ebel with UW Medicine.
Samstad knows that all-too-well, spending the next several weeks using a walker and crutches.
“Riding that fast on a sidewalk and then close to the building – if you do that long enough, you will injure somebody. It’s not if, it’s just a matter of when. It’s just totally reckless behavior,” said Stamstad.
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