E-scooter injuries surge—Alberta doctors sound alarm
Hospital visits for e-scooter crashes jumped to 3,049 in 11 months of 2025-26, up from 1,877 a year earlier, with children's hospitals seeing the sharpest increases.
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Alberta doctors are raising urgent concerns about a surge in e-scooter injuries, with hospital visits climbing sharply as more riders—particularly children—end up with broken bones, severe facial fractures, and brain injuries.
According to Alberta Health Services, there were 1,877 visits to emergency rooms and urgent care centres for e-scooter incidents during the 2022-23 fiscal year. During the first 11 months of 2025-26, those visits had jumped to 3,049. The Edmonton zone has seen the most dramatic rise, with yearly visits more than doubling.
Children's hospitals are being hit hardest. Annual visits to Alberta's two children's hospitals combined—the Stollery in Edmonton and the Alberta Children's Hospital in Calgary—more than tripled, jumping to 268 from 85 over the same four-year period.
Dr. Stephanie VandenBerg, an ER physician and University of Calgary researcher, says she sees serious trauma regularly: broken and fractured bones, cuts, concussions, and brain injuries. A particularly debilitating injury she calls a "facial smash" occurs when someone hits the centre pole of a scooter or other obstacles like trees or curbs. "Those are very debilitating, very disabling. And I think they have lifelong impact," she said.
Adults often double children on scooters, which puts kids at extreme risk. "That essentially sets that child up to be an airbag. They are the cushion between their adult or their friend and the pole or the handlebar of the electric scooter," VandenBerg explained. "For kids, their brain is still developing. So any injury to that developing brain or any injury to their developing bones or the skeletal system can have long-term consequences."
Dr. Brian Rowe of the University of Alberta, who conducted roadside surveys in Edmonton for the past two summers, notes that most riders don't wear helmets and many riders are dual—children on scooters with adults. He's documented dual ridership involving kids and observed risky behaviour throughout. There have also been e-scooter deaths, he said: "Speed kills, impairment kills, lack of a helmet kills, riding with somebody else kills, [as does] being young and inexperienced."
In Calgary and Edmonton, riders must be 18 to operate a shared e-scooter. Rules around speed, riding zones, and other factors vary by city.