A senior surgeon says Queensland needs to reconsider its e-scooter laws, after a study found an increasing number of children were suffering serious injuries, including permanent brain damage.
The number of kids taken to Queensland Children’s Hospital in South Brisbane after e-scooter crashes roughly doubled between 2021 and 2024.
“We’re talking about normal kids … who are just going about their normal lives driving these scooters and ending up in rehabilitation, and they’ll never be normal,” Professor Roy Kimble, the hospital’s director of paediatric surgery, burns and trauma, said on Tuesday.
“I think the rules do need to be looked at in Queensland.
“All we can really do is lay out the information, and it’s for the politicians to work that out.”
The study tracked 64 children who were admitted with serious injuries from e-scooter crashes between 2009 and 2024.
It was released weeks before a state parliamentary inquiry into e-scooters and e-bikes was due to hand down its recommendations to the government.
Of the injured children, two died, about a quarter required intensive care treatment, and two-thirds required surgery.
Of those where it was recorded, more than 60 per cent were not wearing a helmet.
Almost 40 per cent of children who injured their heads suffered ongoing impairment affecting cognition, learning, communication or mood.
Kimble said it was likely serious injuries across Queensland would continue to surge without intervention.
“2026 looks like it’s going to be another record year already … there seems to be no quieting down on this.”
He added that he believed a lack of education was contributing, and he urged parents to think twice before buying powered vehicles for their children.
“I think it’s because it’s so new,” Kimble said.
“I mean, cars and seatbelts, that’s been going on for decades, but really, we’re talking here about the last three or four years, and so I think it’s very new to people, and they just don’t understand the dangers.”
The parliamentary inquiry is due to hand down its findings by the end of March.
Premier David Crisafulli has said his government will pass new laws, but is waiting for the inquiry’s recommendations.
In January, six people, including one primary-school-aged boy in Brisbane, were hospitalised in one night across the state after e-scooter or e-bike crashes.
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