Ms Sharon Heffernan:

I wish to talk about the serious injuries data available. There is little evidence at the moment regarding injuries sustained in collisions involving e-scooters, but recently two research studies were published. Austin Public Health published a joint epidemiological study with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US. The sample was small comprising 192 people who were injured in collisions while they were using an e-scooter. However, there are findings on the types of injuries. For instance, 48% of these people received head injuries, 35% sustained a bone fracture and almost half had some kind of severe injury. They were interviewed and were asked for their view of what happened at the time of the collision. Some 37% said that excessive scooter speed, for instance, may have contributed to the collision and 19% said they believed the scooter malfunctioned. This is just a small example of the type of evidence that is likely to come out over the next year to two years on these.