Consultant to call for extension of Grace's Law

A consultant in emergency medicine will call for Grace's Law to be extended, citing a rising number of patients presenting at hospitals with injuries from scramblers, e-scooters and e-bikes.

Dr Luke Phillips, Consultant in Emergency Medicine and Trauma at Mater Misericordiae University Hospital will tell the Oireachtas Committee on Justice this afternoon that legislation should be extended to ban the "import and sale of non-road legal machines".

He will also call for mandatory vehicle registration "and real enforcement of the rules of the road, existing age limits and use of protective equipment".

The consultant will say the injuries from scramblers include fractured limbs, spinal fractures, solid organ injuries to the spleen and liver, and severe traumatic brain injury.

He will add that many of these injuries "carry significant morbidity and long-term recovery issues".

Road Safety Authority figures show that between January 2021 and June of this year, four road users died and 59 were seriously injured in collisions involving a scrambler.

Dr Phillips will say that two of the deaths and 15 of the people that were seriously injured were not scrambler riders but "pedestrians, cyclists, drivers, and passengers".

The committee will hear that all of the scrambler riders killed or injured were male and 75% of them were 25 years old or younger.

"These riders are exposed, travelling at high speeds in urban environments. They have little or no protective equipment," he will say.

Dr Phillips will add that presentations at his hospital from incidents involving e-scooters has risen steadily over two years.

He will say that "significant limb injuries" are the most commonly seen "with many requiring trips to theatre".

He will say this is placing an "ever-increasing burden on our ED and inpatient units".

"Worryingly, 8% of our patients were pedestrians struck by someone else's scooter," Dr Phillips will add.

He will say the reported traumatic brain injuries in children from e-scooter related incidents is a "pattern we are also seeing in the adult population".