The rise and falls of electronic scooters: A Tasmanian perspective on electronic scooter injuries.

OBJECTIVE: Electronic scooter (eScooter) popularity has soared, despite public concerns around injury risk. We aimed to explore the burden of injury from eScooters presenting to Tasmania's major trauma centre during the first 6 months of the Hobart eScooter trial. METHODS: We screened all ED presentations and interhospital transfers from 11 December 2021 to 26 June 2022 to identify eScooter-associated injury. All injuries were coded using the Abbreviated Injury Scale and an Injury Severity Score (ISS) was computed for each presentation. Data were entered into the Tasmanian Trauma Registry and then exported into standard statistical software for descriptive analysis. RESULTS: There were 135 eScooter presentations to the ED and 31 were admitted. Patients were mostly young (median age 27 years) with an even sex distribution. Injuries were mostly minor (median ISS of 2) with injuries to soft tissues and the head and neck predominating. Approximately, one-third required operative interventions, but none required intensive care. Injured patients were less likely to have been wearing protective gear (36% helmet wearing) and alcohol intoxication was common (41% overall, 71% admitted patients). CONCLUSION: Overall, our 6-month prospective dataset shows that the Hobart eScooter trial has been associated with few major injuries.

Learning from the first 12 months of the Tasmanian Trauma Registry.

The Tasmanian Trauma Registry began collecting data in April 2020 and in April 2021 the first 12 months' data were submitted to the Australia New Zealand Trauma Registry. In this perspective, we share the lessons we have learned in establishing a trauma registry and acknowledge how important support from the broader trauma community has been in allowing Tasmania to participate in national benchmarking and quality assurance processes.