Three years ago, Jim Ireland started noticing a distressing trend: Paramedics with the Honolulu Emergency Services Department were seeing more and more serious injuries involving electric bikes and scooters.
The injuries ranged from scrapes to serious head trauma. Most disturbingly, the victims were often young kids.
“These are, you know, tough calls for the paramedics, because devastating injuries, young people,” Ireland, who is director of the Honolulu Emergency Services Department, told Civil Beat. “You know, paramedics are tough. They’re smart. This is what they’re trained for … But they’re all human beings, too. And so to see these over and over again, it takes a toll.”
Ireland and his team decided to raise awareness about the dangers of the increasingly popular e-bikes, which are bicycles with fully operable pedals that also have electric motors. EMS started putting out press releases about every significant injury they responded to involving an electric bike or scooter…