Reported road casualties Great Britain: e-Scooter factsheet 2023
Published 30 May 2024
© Crown copyright 2024
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/reported-road-casualties-great-britain-e-scooter-factsheet-2023/reported-road-casualties-great-britain-e-scooter-factsheet-2023
About this factsheet
This factsheet examines the main trends in collisions involving e-scooters and the casualties involved, collected in STATS19 reportable collisions.
E-scooter users are one of the vulnerable user groups. They are not protected by a vehicle body in the same way car users are, and tend to be harder for drivers to see on the road. They are, therefore, particularly susceptible to injuries.
Please refer to the background notes for further details of how the data are collected including caveats.
Provisional data
This factsheet is based on provisional data supplied by police forces up to 1 May 2024. No estimation is done for any missing data which means that these provisional estimates are likely to underestimate the final number of casualties. Final figures and underlying data will be published in September 2024.
Things you need to know
Provisional figures
This factsheet is based on provisional data. Several police forces were unable to supply complete data for some months in 2023. As no estimation is made for any missing data, these provisional estimates are likely to underestimate the final number of e-scooter collisions and casualties for the latest year.
In particular, 2023 data is incomplete for Avon and Somerset, Derbyshire (2 months), Thames Valley (2 months) and Wiltshire (2 months). Complete data will be included in final data for 2023 scheduled for publication in September 2024. While the missing data is unlikely to impact on the overall patterns or trends shown below, it will affect the police force comparisons. In particular, Avon and Somerset covers an area with a large e-scooter trial so the figures for this force are likely to be understated relative to others in this provisional data.
Figures will change following updates from the police and the end of year validation process. This is unlikely to affect the national trends but will have a bigger impact on figures for individual police force areas affected.
Severity adjustment
This factsheet provides an estimate of the number of personal injury road traffic collisions involving e-scooters, in Great Britain, in 2023 using the STATS19 reporting system. The figures are based on adjusting figures reported by the police for slight and serious injuries to take account of changes in the reporting of injury severity by some police forces in recent years. These adjusted figures can reliably be used to compare trends over time across the country. They are based on what we estimate the totals would be if all police forces were using injury-based severity reporting systems. More information on the change and adjustment process is available in the severity adjustments guidance.
Main points
Based on provisional data, in 2023:
- there were 1,273 collisions involving e-scooters, compared to 1,402 in 2022
- of all collisions involving e-scooters, 281 included only one e-scooter with no other vehicles involved in the collision (single vehicle collision), compared to 341 in 2022
- there were 1,365 casualties in collisions involving e-scooters, compared to 1,492 in 2022
- of all casualties in collisions involving e-scooters, 1,101 were e-scooter users, compared to 1,149 in 2022
- there were 6 killed in collisions involving e-scooters (6 of whom were e-scooter riders) compared to 12 in 2022
- our best estimate, after adjusting for changes in reporting by police, is that there were 411 seriously injured and 948 slightly injured in collisions involving e-scooters, this compares to 438 and 1,042 respectively in 2022
Reported collisions and casualties involving e-scooters
Table 1 shows the number of reported road casualties in collisions involving e-scooters in Great Britain in 2023, by road user type. Excluding e-scooter casualties themselves the main types of other road users involved in collisions involving e-scooters are pedestrians and cyclists.
Table 1: Number of reported casualties in collisions involving e-scooters, by road user type, Great Britain, 2023
| Road user type | Killed | Serious (adjusted) | Slight (adjusted) | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| E-scooter user | 6 | 338 | 757 | 1,101 |
| Pedestrian | 0 | 52 | 132 | 184 |
| Pedal Cyclist | 0 | 15 | 19 | 34 |
| Motor Cyclist | 0 | 3 | 7 | 10 |
| Car Occupant | 0 | 0 | 29 | 29 |
| Bus Occupant | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Other Vehicle Occupant | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| Total | 6 | 411 | 948 | 1,365 |
Chart 1 shows the number of reported casualties in collisions involving e-scooters from 2020 when they were first recorded in STATS19 up to 2023. There has been a broadly upward trend over this period, with dips during the coronavirus lockdowns, though the number of casualties has followed a similar pattern in 2022 and 2023, with a higher number of casualties in the summer months.
Chart 1: Reported casualties in collisions involving e-scooters by month, Great Britain from January 2020 The shaded areas refer to periods of lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Casualties by age and sex
Chart 2 shows the number of reported e-scooter user casualties, by age and sex in Great Britain in 2023. There are more male than female e-scooter user casualties, especially amongst those aged between 10 and 39.
Chart 2: Reported e-scooter user casualties, by sex and age, Great Britain, 2023
Note: Cases where the casualty age and sex are unknown have been removed from chart 2
Chart 3 shows the number of reported casualties other than e-scooter users in collisions involving e-scooters by age in 2022 and 2023. Casualties are spread across all age groups with the biggest categories being between ages 20 and 59. Patterns by age group are broadly similar when comparing 2023 to 2022.
Chart 3: Reported casualties other than e-scooter user involved in e-scooter collisions, by age, Great Britain, 2022 and 2023
Note: Cases where the casualty age is unknown have been removed from chart 3
Casualties by time of day
Chart 4 shows the number of casualties involved in e-scooter collisions by time of the day, in 2022 and 2023. The trend is the same for both years, an upward trend starting at 6am and ending at around 4pm to 5pm with a dip around 10am, followed by a downward trend from around 5pm to 10pm. There are two peaks, the first one at 8am and the second one at around 4pm to 5pm.
Chart 4: Casualties in collisions involving e-scooters by time of the day, Great Britain, 2023
Casualties by police force area
Table 2 shows the number of reported collisions involving e-scooters by police force in Great Britain, in 2023. The Metropolitan police reported around a quarter of all casualties involving e-scooters in Great Britain, compared with around a fifth of all casualties involving any vehicle. The remaining e-scooter casualties were spread across the other police forces, with higher numbers in areas where there is an ongoing trial (see below).
Table 2: Reported casualties in collisions involving e-scooters by police force, Great Britain, 2023
| Police force | Involving e-scooters | Involving e-scooters (% of GB) | Involving any vehicle | Involving any vehicle (% of GB) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avon and Somerset | 99 | 7% | 2,555 | 2% |
| Bedfordshire | 30 | 2% | 1,778 | 1% |
| Cambridgeshire | 35 | 3% | 2,087 | 2% |
| Cheshire | 8 | 1% | 1,969 | 2% |
| City of London | 1 | 0% | 187 | 0% |
| Cleveland | 11 | 1% | 805 | 1% |
| Cumbria | 2 | 0% | 1,107 | 1% |
| Derbyshire | 28 | 2% | 1,752 | 1% |
| Devon and Cornwall | 7 | 1% | 3,656 | 3% |
| Dorset | 23 | 2% | 1,739 | 1% |
| Durham | 2 | 0% | 737 | 1% |
| Dyfed-Powys | 2 | 0% | 1,416 | 1% |
| Essex | 57 | 4% | 3,689 | 3% |
| Gloucestershire | 15 | 1% | 1,463 | 1% |
| Greater Manchester | 13 | 1% | 3,283 | 3% |
| Gwent | 9 | 1% | 655 | 0% |
| Hampshire | 81 | 6% | 4,192 | 3% |
| Hertfordshire | 22 | 2% | 2,396 | 2% |
| Humberside | 29 | 2% | 2,514 | 2% |
| Kent | 41 | 3% | 5,404 | 4% |
| Lancashire | 22 | 2% | 3,753 | 3% |
| Leicestershire | 24 | 2% | 1,557 | 1% |
| Lincolnshire | 0 | 0% | 2,261 | 2% |
| Merseyside | 52 | 4% | 2,734 | 2% |
| Metropolitan Police | 319 | 23% | 25,933 | 20% |
| Norfolk | 15 | 1% | 1,847 | 1% |
| North Wales | 7 | 1% | 1,063 | 1% |
| North Yorkshire | 6 | 0% | 1,938 | 1% |
| Northamptonshire | 52 | 4% | 1,589 | 1% |
| Northumbria | 18 | 1% | 2,475 | 2% |
| Nottinghamshire | 68 | 5% | 2,435 | 2% |
| Police Scotland | 17 | 1% | 5,784 | 4% |
| South Wales | 19 | 1% | 1,250 | 1% |
| South Yorkshire | 26 | 2% | 2,885 | 2% |
| Staffordshire | 0 | 0% | 935 | 1% |
| Suffolk | 2 | 0% | 1,273 | 1% |
| Surrey | 12 | 1% | 3,544 | 3% |
| Sussex | 33 | 2% | 4,597 | 4% |
| Thames Valley | 59 | 4% | 3,405 | 3% |
| Warwickshire | 9 | 1% | 1,336 | 1% |
| West Mercia | 8 | 1% | 1,952 | 1% |
| West Midlands | 58 | 4% | 6,164 | 5% |
| West Yorkshire | 18 | 1% | 5,496 | 4% |
| Wiltshire | 6 | 0% | 1,581 | 1% |
| Total | 1,365 | 100% | 131,171 | 100% |
Casualties in e-scooter trial areas
The government is running trials of e-scooters, which are currently taking place in around 20 areas.
Estimating the number of e-scooter user casualties riding rental scooters within one of the approved trial areas is not straightforward as currently the distinction between trial and privately owned e-scooters involved in collisions is recorded inconsistently by police forces as part of a free text field, and in some areas (including for the Metropolitan police) there are a high proportion of collisions where the police officer does not identify the type of e-scooter involved.
However, based on the location of the casualty we can be confident that where the collision occurred in an area with no trial taking place that a private scooter was involved.
In 2023, around half (611) of the e-scooter user casualties recorded were estimated to have occurred outside trial areas (table 3). The remaining 490 occurred within or close to trial areas at a time a trial was in operation. However, some of these casualties will have been riding private scooters, so the number of rental scooter casualties will be lower than this.
A breakdown of the casualties within and outside trial areas by the type of scooter in 2023 is shown in table 3.
Of the 402 casualties within trial areas outside London, around 60% with a recorded scooter type were riding rental scooters (a total of 99 casualties). However, as scooter type was unknown in more than half of cases, it is not possible to confidently estimate the total of casualties that were riding trial scooters. We can however say that outside London, the number of rental scooter casualties in 2023 was between 99 and 345.
For London, the proportion of casualties with scooter type recorded is very small, so it is not possible to estimate the number of rental scooter casualties with any degree of confidence. Operator data including numbers of more seriously injured casualties is published by Transport for London though is not directly comparable with the STATS19 data.
Table 3: Reported e-scooter user casualties by whether inside a trial area and scooter type, Great Britain, 2023
| Region | Outside trial area | Within trial area - private scooter | Within trial area - rental scooter | Within trial area - scooter type unknown | Within trial area - total | Overall total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| London | 161 | 2 | 3 | 83 | 88 | 249 |
| Outside London | 450 | 57 | 99 | 246 | 402 | 852 |
| Great Britain | 611 | 59 | 102 | 329 | 490 | 1,101 |
Table 4 shows the number of e-scooters involved in reported road collisions, by ownership type, highlighting the police force areas covering the largest trials in place.
While it is difficult to draw any firm conclusions from the data reported at present, we will continue to issue guidance to police forces to attempt to capture more robust data on casualties within trial areas where possible.
Table 4: Reported e-scooters involved in collisions by ownership type, Great Britain, 2023
| Police force | Private | Rental | Unknown |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avon and Somerset | 11 | 5 | 78 |
| Dorset | 15 | 7 | 1 |
| Hampshire | 36 | 12 | 28 |
| Merseyside | 15 | 23 | 10 |
| Metropolitan Police | 7 | 3 | 291 |
| Northamptonshire | 0 | 40 | 12 |
| Nottinghamshire | 3 | 1 | 60 |
Injuries in collisions involving e-scooters
For police forces using injury-based reporting systems, information on the most severe injury sustained is available within STATS19. While coverage is not complete, this provides further detail on the outcomes of road collisions. Further details of what is collected are covered in our factsheet on injuries in road collisions.
Table 5 shows that the three most common type of injuries sustained in collisions involving e-scooters (to the e-scooter users or others) are all of slight severity. However, the fourth, fifth and sixth most common type of injuries are different type of fractures and head injures which are considered as serious injuries.
Table 5: Reported casualties in collisions involving e-scooters by injury type, Great Britain, 2023
| Injury type | Severity | Number of casualties |
|---|---|---|
| Shallow cuts, lacerations or abrasions | Slight | 190 |
| Bruising | Slight | 89 |
| Sprains and strains | Slight | 73 |
| Fractured lower leg, ankle, foot | Serious | 43 |
| Other head injury | Serious | 33 |
| Fractured arm, collarbone, hand | Serious | 31 |
| Severe head injury, unconscious | Serious | 21 |
| Deep cuts, lacerations | Serious | 20 |
| Whiplash or neck pain | Slight | 15 |
| Shock | Slight | 11 |
| Fractured pelvis or upper leg | Serious | 10 |
| Internal injuries | Serious | 6 |
| Multiple severe injuries, conscious | Serious | 6 |
| Broken neck or back | Serious | 4 |
| Severe chest injury | Serious | 2 |
| Multiple severe injuries, unconscious | Serious | 2 |
| Deep penetrating wound | Serious | 2 |
| Other chest injury, not bruising | Serious | 1 |
Note: The table includes only casualties reported by police forces using the injury-based reporting system ‘CRASH’, this is around 41% of all casualties in collisions involving e-scooters.
A list of all police forces and system they use can be found in severity adjustments section.
Background information
“E-scooters” are not one of the designated vehicle types collected in a STATS19 reportable collisions, as such they would be classed as other vehicle and can only be identified using a free text field.
The “Other vehicle” category was introduced in 2011 to replace the previously collected vehicle types Other motor vehicle and Other non-motor vehicle. A free text field was introduced at the same time to provide insight into what other vehicles were being recorded.
The description is mainly used by the department to assess whether new vehicle types need to be captured and to reclassify existing “Other vehicles” into one of the defined vehicle types. For example, even though mobility scooters have their own category, a number of these end up in the other category each year and are reclassified by DfT.
The free text field cannot be automatically validated in the same way as the designated vehicle type data, and therefore not as robust as published vehicle statistics. Therefore, using this text does require some investigation and validation. Unfortunately, the word scooter is not exclusive to one type of vehicle and depending on the context used, it could be used to describe a variety of vehicles including some motorcycles (those that have a step-through frame and a platform for the rider’s feet to rest on), mobility scooters and traditional stand on scooters. Stand on scooters can also have different methods of propulsion (petrol, electric or physical effort). Guidance has been issued to all forces to ensure they capture more than just the word ‘scooter’ in the free text description when recording this.
It should be noted that a considerable percentage of non-fatal casualties are not reported to the police. Non-fatal casualties for e-scooter users are amongst the most likely to be under-reported in road casualty data since they have no obligation to inform the police of collisions. This should be borne in mind when analysing and interpreting the data.
More information about the strength and weaknesses and definitions can be found in reported road casualties in Great Britain: annual report, 2022.
Feedback
We welcome further feedback on any aspects of the department’s road safety statistics including content, timing, and format, via email to the road safety statistics team.
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