A Surgeon Tells His Story

Head, Teeth, Hand: What Gets Broken in a Scooter Accident

E-scooters are particularly popular among young people, but riding them is not without risk.(Bild: Christian Jauschowetz)

They’re fast, affordable, and have become an integral part of many young people’s daily lives. But what starts as a casual ride through the city is increasingly ending in the operating room: At Kepler University Hospital in Linz, trauma surgeon Axel Mechtler treats a seriously injured e-scooter rider an average of once a week. Why his urgent appeal to wear a helmet hits close to home.

E-scooters are affordable, easy to use, simple to customize, and take up little space—numerous advantages that make them so popular, especially among young people. But the dangers are no joke—especially if you ride without a helmet or illegally race through the city with a passenger. 

One e-scooter rider on the operating table every week
The “Krone” spoke with Axel Mechtler, a trauma surgeon at Kepler University Hospital in Linz, who sees an e-scooter rider on the operating table about once a week on average. Minor injuries occur practically every day. “The high number of e-scooter accidents is ultimately due to biomechanics. Small tires, long handlebars, high speeds—at some point, it just doesn’t add up. Even small obstacles like curbs, manhole covers, or streetcar tracks are enough to cause serious accidents.”

Most of those injured in e-scooter accidents are between 16 and 18 years old. Certainly 20 to 40 percent were intoxicated when the accident occurred.

Axel Mechtler

Bild: KUK

The head, face, teeth, and wrists are most commonly affected. In most cases, the young patients were not wearing helmets at the time of the accidents. “And unfortunately, it’s also the case that teenagers often ride the scooter in pairs. This makes it less stable and increases the risk of an accident even further,” says Mechtler.

A Long List of Injuries
Head contusions, lacerations, and abrasions are among the least severe injuries resulting from scooter accidents. The list is much longer: Mechtler has to treat nasal bone fractures, facial skull fractures, tooth loss, and wrist fractures involving broken radius or ulna bones. The trauma surgeon praises the helmet requirement—e-scooter riders nationwide must generally wear head protection until they turn 16: “I always say: You have to protect your brain—if you have one. I think that hits the nail on the head.”

A quick look at Statistics Austria: In the first half of 2025, 1,125 e-scooter riders were injured in traffic accidents in Austria, and two more lost their lives.