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LiveWell Talk On...
294 - Scooter and E-bike Safety (Dr. Richard Hodge)
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The City of Cedar Rapids offers scooters and e-bikes around the downtown area to help residents get around more quickly. As the weather starts heating up, Dr. Richard Hodge, with UnityPoint Clinic Urgent Care - Marion, returns to the podcast to discuss safety precautions that should be taken when using these methods of transportation.
To locate your nearest UnityPoint Clinic Urgent Care, visit unitypoint.org.
If you have a topic you'd like Dr. Arnold to discuss with a guest on the podcast, shoot us an email at stlukescr@unitypoint.org.
This is Livewell Talk on Scooters and e-bike safety. I'm Dr. Dustin Arnold, Chief Medical Officer at Union Point Health, St. Luke's Hospital. A common observation is electronic scooters and bikes offered by the city of Cedar Rapids to make it easier to get around in the downtown area. But they do come with safety risks. Returning the podcast today is Dr. Richard Hodge, physician at Union Point Clinic Urgent Care Marion, to show how riders can take advantage of this transportation method while taking the proper precautions. Dr. Hodge, welcome back. Thank you. Well, to start with, there's little supervision with these devices. And youth and the addition of alcohol to those that are of age, we hope, and then providing an electric device for them to get around. And I'm sure you've seen that in the urgent care.
SPEAKER_01Occasionally we see fractures, lacerations. A few people have hit their head, been got a concussion. But yeah, the scooters are not quite the same as uh even a bicycle or of obviously an automobile. There's a little bit more risk involved inherently with a scooter.
Dr. ArnoldWe're so um attuned to wearing helmets. I mean, when you and I were kids, you didn't wear a helmet, right? You know, and um, but now it's very commonplace. It's it's unusual to see someone on a bicycle without a helmet. Correct. Uh the fact that these scooters and bikes don't have a helmet issued with them, um, that seems to be a contradiction to what we normally influence people to do. Um and I guess I I'm presuming that you'd still feel that way, that uh wearing a helmet with these devices would be a good thing to do.
SPEAKER_01Yes. I I really think to to ride something like this, um a helmet would be it could be the difference between life and death in some of these things. I mean, if you think about riding a scooter where most people who ride these, I would venture to guess have little to no experience with riding them before. They can get up to a pretty good speed, 10, 15 miles an hour, and small wheels and the rain gutters and fine city streets we have here. If you hit a curb or I mean, it's just a recipe for a disaster, and not having your head protected, I think, really increases your risk of serious injury.
Dr. ArnoldYeah. And well, I, you know, uh my uh pager goes off for all the trauma alerts and it has a text message, you know, what's going on. And it's not infrequently that uh we see scooter injury on there uh coming in the ER. Yeah. Um what speaking of spe you said 20 to 15 to 20 miles per hour. Is it is that the scooter and the e-bike both go about the same e-bikes may be a little bit um faster, and again, it depends on the size of the motor.
SPEAKER_01But a scooter, some of the scooters can get you know 15, 20 miles an hour. Some of the bigger ones, the smaller scooters um are probably more around 10, but even at 10 miles an hour, boy, that's a that's a pretty good clip. If you're hitting a curb or fall into one of those rain grates, and it just typically amazed me in medicine and outside of medicine to observe how resilient the human body can be.
Dr. ArnoldYou know, somebody falls hundreds of feet and they got a couple bruises, and they, you know, and how fragile it can be at the same time. Somebody trips over a roller skate and hits the floor, and you know, it's a life-ending injury. Um, and I just it's it seems like quite a risk not to wear a protective helmet when you use these. Uh correct. But they're not gonna. So let's talk about when they should go to the urgent care with an injury as opposed to the emergency room.
SPEAKER_01Um urgent care would be, you know, you've been out riding a scooter, you fell off, you scraped yourself, or you have a laceration, nothing major, maybe sprained a finger, uh, you're worried your wrist is sore. Did I break my wrist? Uh, twisted an ankle. Urgent care is the place to go. Um obviously, if it's anything more than that, or you hit your head and you got knocked out, then you probably need to be seen at the ER. Or if you fell and you can't stand up because you broke your tibia, then ER is an emergency room. That's pretty simple advice, isn't it? Yeah, although you'd be surprised. Um some folks show up the next day when uh they're sober and yeah, you know, it's you've got a more significant injury than you thought you did when you went to bed. So I mean, do you see a lot of these injuries? Obviously season dependent, but um spring and summer, there are frequent flyers.
Dr. ArnoldYeah. You know, one thing about urgent care that I w want to ask you, you know, um you you ask people ask you, oh, I bet New Year's Eve is the most traumas, etc. And I always say, no, it's actually the first nice Saturday. You know, people get out. So uh, you know, what what's been your experience with the first nice Saturday?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think the in the spring. In the spring, absolutely. Um, yeah, the the first uh time the weather starts getting nice, then the the injuries start showing up that you would expect, you know, bicycle accidents, scooter accidents, right, uh skateboard accidents, that sort of thing. Um those definitely increase uh when the weather gets nice and everybody is back on the learning curve to remember how to ride bicycles and scooters and skateboards.
Dr. ArnoldNow I don't know this well enough, but these scooters, they don't I mean, they they they are seasonal, I imagine. Um and also are they restricted in use like during inclement weather, like tornado warning, etc. I mean, returning a watch.
SPEAKER_01I well, I don't know if there's any specific rules in that regard. I know, at least for the city of Cedar Rapids, you're not supposed to ride them on the sidewalks downtown. Um yeah, I think obviously if the weather is not looking good, I don't know that I would hop on a scooter or my bicycle for that matter. Right.
Dr. ArnoldIt just particularly the old driver's ed uh multiple choice question, you know, when is it the slickest, the first 30 minutes after it starts raining? Yeah, you know. I remember that because I got it wrong. Um but um so in in summary, the with the scooters, injuries happen. Uh wear a helmet if you can. Yes. And if you have a significant injury, probably to the emergency room. Correct. Uh, where particularly head injury, right? I think. Um and then uh minor injuries can be taken care of in the urgent cares with our staff there. Well, these uh these devices are uh uh downtown and post uh flood of 08, you know, our downtown is the nightlife is there. I mean, it's really changed dramatically in that since that time. Um what's what's the thinking regarding consuming alcohol and climate on a scooter?
SPEAKER_01Well, in my experience, uh a vast majority of the injuries occur in those situations where somebody's had something to drink and then got on a scooter and got injured. But I think this the rules for a scooter would be the same as those as far as getting in your car. If you've had something to drink, don't drive. Don't get on a scooter. Not worth it. Walk home or have a friend take you home. But don't don't grab a scooter to tool down to get home. I I just wouldn't do that.
Dr. ArnoldYeah. That's good advice. Well, Dr. Hodge, thank you for joining me uh in informing our listeners about the safety precautions one should take with the e-bikes and electric scooters. Once again, this is Dr. Richard Hodge, physician of UNAPoint Clinic Urgent Care, Marion. To locate your nearest UNAPoint clinic urgent care, visit UNAPoint.org. Thank you for listening to LiveWell Talk On. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe. And if you want to spread the word, please give us a five-star review and tell your family, friends, neighbors, strangers about our podcast. We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever you get your podcast. Until next time, be well.