I’ll never forget the moment my hands came off the handlebars while riding an electric scooter down a slick street on a rainy night in the Bronx on Feb. 21, 2024.
Zipping through the streets in the Castle Hill neighborhood on a lime-colored rental scooter, wind blasting on my face, hair swimming through the cold breeze and music buzzing in my ear, life seemed perfect. And like many teen-agers, I felt invincible.
Then around 8:30 p.m., a light rain started to fall, reducing my visibility as I rode the scooter home from the mosque. Bright lights from the convenience store across the road reflected off the wet pavement, creating a distracting glare that hid the road’s imperfections.
That’s when disaster struck. Two potholes in quick succession sealed my fate. The first pothole made me lose control, and the second launched me into the air, slamming my helmetless head against the unforgiving rocky road with brutal force. I wore a heavy jacket with a thick hood, but without any helmet, my head didn’t have much to protect it from blunt trauma. Confused, I struggled to regain consciousness, only to find myself lying on a cold and wet road.
I struggled to sit up. Strangers, their voices blurred and distant, recorded me but none offered help. With no one reaching out to help, I crawled to my phone, which had slid out of my pocket, and dialed 911.
Thankfully help arrived within minutes of the call and an ambulance rushed me to the emergency room at Jacobi Medical North. Diagnosed with a severe concussion, a torn wrist ligament and other injuries, I had to stay in the hospital for three days.
After being released, the pain didn’t stop: I had headaches that didn’t go away. I felt nauseous and dizzy. I had trouble seeing. And I couldn’t sleep. Plus, I still had to attend school.
Ten months later, after regular physical therapy and concussion therapy sessions, my symptoms have improved and I’ve pushed my senior grade-point average back into the A range. So you’d think I would have learned an important lesson about scooter safety, right? Sad to say, my story is more complicated.
I’m not alone in my experience, as Hazel Ramos, a senior at Bronx River High School, also survived a devastating accident when a speeding truck hit her electric scooter, leaving her with severe injuries last school year. “I cracked my head open; I did lose a lot of blood,” Hazel recalls.
She credits her strength and resilience for her recovery, saying, “In my eyes, God was by my side, because here I am, and I was very strong.”
Hazel stresses the importance of safety measures, urging others to “Please wear the right attire, especially a helmet, and drive safely.”
The accident changed her life, making her more cautious and nervous, especially when crossing streets. Although she still rides Lime scooters, Hazel now takes extra precautions, saying, “I stay on the sidewalk just because of the fact.”
As interest in electronic scooters has increased, so have the number of accidents. From 2017 to 2022, injuries from electronic scooters jumped from 8,566 to 56,847, according to data compiled by researchers at the University of California in San Francisco. And according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, most of the injured riders weren’t wearing a helmet: During 2022, only 13 percent of injured riders reported wearing a helmet at the time of the accident.
Despite these odds, scooters are tempting, especially for teens looking for an easy cheap ride in the Bronx. Placed around key areas on Bronx streets for quick rentals, they come in handy, especially when teens are running late for work or class or just want a quick escape from reality.
These eco-friendly and cost effective vehicles have transformed the way people, myself included, navigate short distances, offering a convenient and easier alternative to traditional types of transportation.
Not only that, many individuals ride just for fun. Although some people have their own scooters, there are public ones, such as Bird, Lime and Veo scooters, around many parts of the cities. As long as you have a valid ID and a card to pay with, you’re good to go. Just scan the barcode and the scooter turns on, giving you access to ride around while getting lost in your thoughts.
As you’re riding at the speed of 15 miles per hour, you can break through the wind like it’s nothing, catch as much air as you wish and scoot around narrow spaces with ease.
Greg Fucheck, the principal at Bronx River High School, has mixed feelings about electric scooters, especially as he’s seen several students, myself included, suffer injuries from accidents while riding them.
“I’m torn about electric scooters because I recognize that they have been a valuable tool for the people who use them for their job, so a lot of delivery people like Grub Hub and all that use the scooters and it has allowed for that whole economic situation to develop, but on the flip side there’s been lots of injuries,’’ he said.
If people are going to ride scooters, Naimah Samiha, a medical surgical nurse at New York University Tisch Hospital, says it’s important that they do so responsibly to prevent common scooter injuries, such as head injuries and broken bones.
Taking a fall without a helmet can have life-long consequences: “Head injuries can cause irreversible damage and impact one’s health and future negatively with no way to reverse the impacts of the injury,’’ she said.
She also thinks policies that make riders wear protective gear, reinforce speed limits and introduce scooter lanes, could make riding scooters a safer option.
All of these warnings and suggestions make sense – and if you choose to ride a scooter, you should heed them. But I won’t judge you if you don’t. And here’s why:
I know firsthand how dangerous scooters can be, especially when you leave the helmet at home. In fact, I’m still paying the price for my helmetless ride last February.
Even so, I am a teen-ager in a rush. And so, when I’m running late, the scooter tempts me. I try not to, but from time to time, I still race off on a scooter while my helmet sits unused, gathering dust in the closet.
