Electric scooters are very common in cities. Since 2017, their number has grown rapidly in Europe. Bolt was the first to bring them to Estonia in 2018.
According to Estonian law, an electric scooter is a light vehicle. This term was added to the law in 2021. However, many things are still unregulated. With the increase in the number of scooters, there are also more accidents.
Laureen Kalvet, a student at Tallinn German High School, researched the statistics of electric scooter accidents. According to the police, there are fewer accidents, but doctors do not confirm this. Hospitals must report injuries to both the Health Insurance Fund and the Transport Board.
Most accidents involve young men. Laureen wanted to conduct research for all of Estonia. However, data collection was difficult because the classification used in Estonia does not distinguish electric scooters from other vehicles.
In Pärnu County, the coding of electric scooter accidents has been more clearly agreed upon. Therefore, Laureen chose Pärnu County for her research.
She found that 97 cases of electric scooter accidents reached Pärnu Hospital in 2021-2022. 68% of the injured were men. There were 20 cases involving boys aged 5-14.
Hospitals must also submit data to the Transport Board. However, it was difficult to compare data because the Transport Board uses different age groups.
Laureen found that according to the Transport Board's data, the most injured were young men (18-34 years old). Very young boys were not visible in the statistics, although there were many of them in Pärnu.
The injury classification is outdated. The Transport Board's regulation does not mention electric scooters separately. This may cause inaccurate data.
In Pärnu Hospital, most injuries were mild (46%). For example, bruises and hematomas. 27% of cases were fractures. Elbow and wrist fractures were more common.
13 people had to stay in the hospital. The average treatment lasted 6.3 days. The longest treatment lasted 33 days.
Over two years, treatment costs amounted to 47,560 euros. The average cost was 485 euros, but in half of the cases, it was below 49 euros. Some very costly cases raised the average.
The treatment cost of the 11 most severe cases was over 800 euros. These were head injuries and fractures. Wearing a helmet could help reduce accidents.
Laureen's work won a prize in 2025. The work was supervised by teachers Liisa-Marie Lääne and Jane Idavain. More details can be found in the journals Akadeemiake and Eesti Arst.