Children's e-bike injuries grew 33% per quarter at US children's hospitals and were more often severe, JAMA study finds

Injuries from electric bikes and scooters among US children and teenagers are rising quickly and tend to be more serious than injuries from non-motorised rides, according to a study published in JAMA on 2 November 2026 and led by Stanford Medicine.

The study

Researchers used PEDSnet, a network pooling electronic health records from large US pediatric hospitals, to analyse 13,307 patients under 18 treated at six health systems for injuries from e-bikes, ordinary bikes, e-scooters, ordinary scooters and skateboards between 1 January 2023 and 31 March 2026.

Findings

• E-bike injuries rose by 33% per quarter and e-scooter injuries by 15% per quarter — “substantially higher” than for non-motorised bikes and scooters, lead author Alan Schroeder said.
• High-severity injuries affected 8% of e-bike patients vs 4% on ordinary bikes, and 5% on e-scooters vs 2% on ordinary scooters.
• Brain injuries were about twice as common: 10% (e-bikes) and 9% (e-scooters) vs 5% and 4%.
• 17% of e-bike injuries led to hospitalisation. About a quarter of e-bike injuries and almost half of e-scooter injuries were in children under 12.

The authors suggest age limits, speed limits that cannot be tampered with, appropriate helmets and traffic-rule education.

Limitations

This is an observational analysis of hospital records: it counts children who reached these pediatric systems, not all injuries nationwide, and cannot measure how many children ride each device, so it does not give injury risk per ride. The e-bike and e-scooter diagnosis codes were introduced only in 2022, and coding accuracy may vary.