Concerns over e-bike, motorized scooter injuries

of e-bike and motorized scooter crashes, raising a lot of concern among doctors and first responders. And right now they're urging riders and parents to take precautions to prevent serious injuries. Joining us now is Dr. Kelly Levasseur to share more. And doctor, it's good to talk to you. Thanks for joining us here live tonight at five. Thank you very much for talking about this. This is such an important topic. You know, we talked about this a few moments ago in Bloomfield Township just a few months ago. Two young people were, you know, scooting around town on these e-bikes and boom, you know, hit by somebody and severely hurt. This is really a danger. What is it that you'd like moms and dads to know right now? I really want them to know that we are seeing kids get injured with these riding e-bikes and scooters. And it's not just minor injuries, it's major injuries. And it's not just one fracture, it can be multiple fractures. It can be a head injury and two wrist fractures or a leg fracture. So these injuries are much more significant and severe and and really can like the recovery from these injuries just take so much longer so i really want parents to know that these are not just like a regular pedal bike they need to understand what they're buying their kids and how to make sure if their kids are going to be allowed to ride them how to make it safe for them do they need a helmet do they need a special helmet do they need training should they just ride you know around on their yard or can they go out in the community so i think the more that parents educate themselves on the e-bikes that they're going to potentially buy their kids the safer that we can keep our kids in our community yeah there's an event that you're a part of here today essentially in which you know you have law enforcement from across our region saying we got to do something about this so let's get into some some of those things you talked about. If you buy an e-bike for your kid, there are age limitations, right? I mean, you can't just be an 11-year-old on an e-bike going 25, 30 miles an hour. Talk about that for a moment, and then also what you suggest as a doctor that they should be wearing to keep safe. So I think that what the laws that we have right now are just woefully inadequate. I do think that there are parents that buy bikes and e-bikes that can go 25 miles an hour and they don't realize that. And we have 10, 11, 12-year-old kids riding these bikes and getting severely injured. And I'm hearing today that there are hopefully laws that are going to be enacted to help protect our kids. But it's really right now in the hands of the parents and our guardians to be able to figure out what they're going to buy their kids and how to keep them safe until we get some more laws passed and education out there for these families. and as a physician I really recommend that they're you know again educate your kids educate yourself but helmets they anytime they get on anything with wheels they need a helmet whether you know it's they're using you know roller blades or on their pedal bike or on an e-bike or scooter they have to have a helmet on because we have so many families that come in to us and they all say oh I didn't think this was going to happen so just plan for those times when we're like oh we don't think it's going to happen but just in case wear that helmet yeah so i that's the biggest piece of advice i can give we got some fall winter birthdays and christmas coming up and so before you just say yes to what your kids are requesting make sure you pay attention to what this doctor is saying we thank you for joining us here tonight at five appreciate your time thank you so much