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Injury Data Dashboard · Updated May 2026

The data on youth micromobility injuries is not ambiguous.

E-bike and e-scooter injuries among ages 11–14 have risen every year since 2017. At one pediatric trauma center, e-bike injuries surpassed car accidents to become the #1 cause of ER trauma visits in 2025. This dashboard compiles the current evidence.

Sources: CPSC NEISS, ERideHero, AAOS, Rady Children's Hospital, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago · Data current as of 2024–2025

115,713
E-scooter ER injuries in 2024 — more than double 2023
ERideHero / CPSC NEISS, 2025
38.3%
Of all pediatric e-scooter injuries involve ages 11–14
CPSC NEISS, 2023
<5%
Of school districts have a structured micromobility safety program
wheelWISE program analysis, 2025
23%
Average annual increase in micromobility injuries since 2017
CPSC, 2023

Eight years of uninterrupted growth.

E-scooter injuries treated in U.S. emergency departments have risen every year since tracking began. The 2024 figure is more than 13 times the 2017 baseline.

E-Scooter ER Injuries in the U.S. — 2017 to 2024 (estimated)
8,566
2017
16,700
2018
25,500
2019
29,344
2020
44,000
2021
56,847
2022
64,312
2023
115,713
2024

Sources: CPSC NEISS (2017–2022), ERideHero 2025 Electric Scooter Accident Report (2023–2024). 2018–2019 values estimated from CPSC 23% avg. annual increase. Teal bar = most recent data point.

+80%
Single-year jump: 2023 → 2024
E-scooter injuries rose 80% in a single year — from 64,312 in 2023 to 115,713 in 2024. This is the largest single-year increase recorded.
ERideHero / CPSC NEISS, 2025 · Campus Safety Magazine
+300%
E-bike pediatric injuries, San Diego 2019–2023
At a Level 1 pediatric trauma center, e-bike accidents among children and teens rose over 300% in five years. E-bike patients were 4.2× more likely to sustain extremity injuries.
AAOS 2026 Annual Meeting · PR Newswire
#1
E-bikes surpass car accidents at Rady Children's
In 2025, e-bike injuries became the #1 cause of ER trauma visits at Rady Children's Health — surpassing car accidents, falls, and pedestrian collisions. In 2021, there was only one.
Rady Children's Health / CHOC, Feb 2026 · CHOC
Pediatric e-bike injuries in one year — Connecticut
Connecticut Children's Medical Center treated 32 pediatric e-bike injuries Jan–Jun 2024. The same period in 2025: 92. Nearly triple in 12 months.
Connecticut Children's Medical Center, 2025 · Source
293%
E-bike injuries in Illinois — state data
Illinois Secretary of State documented a 293% statewide increase in e-bike injuries and called for new regulatory action in February 2026.
Illinois Secretary of State, Feb 2026

Middle schoolers are the primary population — not a secondary one.

Children ages 11–14 are structurally overrepresented in injury data. This is not an age group that happens to ride — it is the age group the data points to most directly.

38.3%
Of all pediatric e-scooter injuries
Ages 11–14 account for 38.3% of all pediatric e-scooter injuries nationally while representing only 18% of the youth population — overrepresented at more than twice their proportional share.
CPSC NEISS, 2023
13.6%
Polytrauma rate — exceeds the adult rate
Hospitalized children in this age group face a 13.6% polytrauma rate — higher than adults — attributed specifically to reduced hazard anticipation and lower impulse regulation under social pressure.
CPSC NEISS, 2023
70.1%
Of pediatric e-scooter injuries are male, ages 11–14
Males ages 11–14 account for 70.1% of pediatric e-scooter injuries. The risk behavior patterns of the highest-injury adult cohort (ages 15–24) are established during these years.
CPSC NEISS, 2023
0.83
Peer pressure factor loading — strongest predictor of unsafe riding
Peer pressure is the single strongest predictor of unsafe riding behavior in this age group, with a factor loading coefficient of 0.83 — higher than knowledge of traffic law or personal sense of safety responsibility.
wheelWISE White Paper, 2026 / CPSC behavioral research
49.1%
Head/neck injury rate in speed-related e-bike crashes
Speed-related e-bike injuries produce head, neck, or facial injuries in 49.1% of cases vs. 28.7% for non-speed-related. Speed-related patients were also more likely to sustain internal organ injuries (24.1% vs. 10.4%).
Rady Children's / CHOC, Injury Journal, Dec 2025

Most students are riding without helmets. Their parents don't know it.

30%
Parents who always require helmet use for e-scooters (age 11+)
Only 30% of Illinois parents always require helmet use for e-scooters for children aged 11 or older. For e-bikes, the rate rises slightly to 42% — still the lowest of all motorized vehicle categories studied.
Heffernan et al., Voices of Child Health / NORC at U. of Chicago, Jan 2026
70%
Less likely to wear helmets on shared vs. personal devices
Riders of shared e-scooters wear helmets 70% less frequently than personal device owners. Head injuries account for more than 18% of all e-scooter injuries nationally.
CPSC, 2023 · Campus Safety Magazine, 2026
AAP
Recommends against e-scooter use under age 16
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends against e-scooter use by children under 16 — a standard almost no current middle school rider meets with formal safety training.
American Academy of Pediatrics

The burden is not distributed equally.

Non-Hispanic Black youth are disproportionately harmed.

Non-Hispanic Black consumers represented 29% of micromobility injuries nationally despite comprising only 13% of the U.S. population — a disparity that is consistent across years and device types. (CPSC NEISS, 2023)

Helmet use gaps are compounded by education and access inequities. Parents with a college degree were significantly more likely to require helmet use, and high-income districts are nearly four times as likely to show academic recovery from pandemic-era developmental losses. The students most likely to be riding without safety training are the same students whose structured-learning gaps are largest. (Heffernan et al., 2026; Reardon / Stanford-Harvard Educational Opportunity Project, 2025)

The fire risk is real — and directly teachable.

Battery fires from improperly charged or stored e-bikes and e-scooters have become a documented public safety emergency. The chain of decisions that leads to thermal runaway can be taught.

800+
FDNY e-mobility battery fires, 2022–2024
New York City's fire department responded to more than 800 e-mobility battery fires over three years, resulting in 30 deaths and more than 400 injuries.
30
Deaths from NYC battery fires alone
The FDNY data represents a single city. National battery fire deaths are estimated significantly higher, with the CPSC documenting 19 fire-related micromobility deaths in just two years (2021–2022).
3
Teachable decisions that cause most fires
Wrong charger. Indoor storage. Unattended overnight charging. These three decisions cause the majority of battery fires. Most students have never been taught any of them.

Two crises. One root.

The same students overrepresented in injury data are entering a workforce with a documented soft skills crisis — and the skills that prevent micromobility injuries are the exact skills employers say are missing. Impulsive decisions on e-bikes and impulsive decisions in the workplace share a developmental origin.

56%
Of employers cite soft skills as the #1 gap
56% of company leaders blame weak soft skills for entry-level unpreparedness — up from 50% in 2024. In the U.S., that number rises to 58%.
63%
Of employers say skill gaps are their #1 barrier
63% of global employers identify skill gaps — not capital, not technology — as the biggest barrier to business transformation through 2030.
6%
Of employers engage with middle school students
Only 6% of employers engage with students at the middle school level — despite research identifying ages 12–14 as the highest-return window for soft skill development.
39%
Of current skill sets will be outdated by 2030
39% of existing workplace skills will be transformed or obsolete within five years. The skills with zero AI substitution potential — empathy, active listening, social influence — are the same ones WheelWISE develops.
11pts
Academic achievement gain from SEL programs
Students in structured SEL programs show an average 11-percentile-point gain in academic achievement. Effects are documented up to 18 years after participation. Middle school produces stronger effects than elementary.
0
Skills with "very high" AI substitution capacity
The WEF assessed 2,800+ skills for GenAI substitution and found zero with "very high" replacement capacity. Empathy and active listening currently show no substitution potential whatsoever.

"The behavior that produces micromobility injuries in the 11–14 age group is precisely the behavior that SEL and character education research identifies as the product of underdeveloped impulse control, peer-influenced decision-making, and insufficient empathy for the consequences of risk. These are not parallel problems. They share a root."

— wheelWISE White Paper, NorthStar Mentors, April 2026

The students riding right now are the pandemic cohort.

Students currently in grades 6–8 were ages 3–10 during the 2020–2022 pandemic — the precise window when foundational peer interaction, impulse control, and empathy development occur. The research has accumulated beyond the preliminary stage.

7.5 pts
Drop in executive function scores post-pandemic
Jones et al. (2026) tested 3,100+ Massachusetts children ages 3–11 from 2018–2023 and found executive function scores fell ~7.5 points — roughly half a standard deviation — following pandemic-era school closures.
Jones et al., Child Development, DOI: 10.1093/chidev/aacag003, 2026
11–12 mo
Executive functioning growth lost during school closures
A study of 667 Oklahoma children found executive functioning growth stagnated during closures — a loss of 11–12 months — with recovery proceeding at only 65–74% of pre-pandemic rates.
Developmental Psychology, PMC12700346, 2025
+1M
Additional ADHD diagnoses in children, 2016–2022
A CDC study found an additional 1 million children were diagnosed with ADHD in 2022 compared to 2016, for a total of 7.1 million — with pandemic-era disruptions cited as a contributing factor.
Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, DOI: 10.1080/15374416.2024.2335625, 2024

The W.I.S.E. framework is designed at the intersection of these crises.

Each phase of the W.I.S.E. Learning Model directly targets a documented post-pandemic deficit — and builds the precise competencies that employers and safety researchers identify as most critical and most resistant to AI displacement.

Explore the full interactive W.I.S.E. framework →
W
Watch
Observational modeling — restores learning capacity disrupted during Bandura's critical modeling window. Students observe real-world scenarios before acting.
I
Investigate
Structured inquiry using the IPDE decision framework — externalizes the impulse-regulation sequence identified as persistently underdeveloped in this cohort.
S
Share
Peer teaching and public communication — provides graduated rehearsal that directly addresses the language and collaboration deficits documented in post-pandemic kindergarten cohort analysis.
E
Empower
Authentic identity formation through real-world behavioral commitment — addresses false-belief and perspective-taking deficits and builds the empathy employers say is irreplaceable.

The data has answered the question. The question now is whether your school, department, or program will act on it.

WheelWISE is a structured, ready-to-run readiness program that runs inside existing school and community structures — no new staff, no new course, no prerequisite.

Sources & References
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