E-scooters and associated injuries: forensic aspects (literature review)

Examinations in relation to living persons, as well as examinations of corpses of persons injured in incidents involving ground wheeled vehicles, continue to occupy one of the leading places in the practical activities of forensic medical experts. Over the past 3-5 years, means of individual mobility (hereinafter referred to as SIM) have become increasingly widespread. The use of SIM naturally leads to an increase in road accidents. To date, there is sufficient coverage of issues related to automobile, motorcycle and even bicycle injuries. However, there is no data on scooter trauma in the domestic forensic literature, which cannot be said about the work of foreign authors. This literature review provides some epidemiological data, as well as information on the mechanism and type of damage in cases of injuries involving electric scooters. Some statistical information of this kind of road incidents, including fatal ones, is shown. Scooter trauma is characterized by its seasonality with an upward trend mainly in the warm months of the year (summer, early autumn). Young persons who directly control electric scooters, as a rule, are especially often injured. The predominant type of incident is considered to be falls. The most "traumatic" parts are the head and limbs. Injuries, as a rule, are isolated in nature and can be both external (in the form of abrasions, bruises, wounds) and internal (in the form of fractures). Visceral injuries in scooter injuries are extremely rare.