E-scooters seem harmless. The risks are anything but.

By Shreya Jyotishi, Abonti Barua, Ethan Eccker, Mehak Fatima, Bruce Lipscomb IV and Emane Ondias-Souna

August 19, 2026

Youthcast Media Group®

Michael Willingham’s third e-scooter ride nearly killed him.

The 48-year-old Silver Spring, Md. resident was making a final turn on his new e-scooter when a truck driver ran a red light and struck him. Willingham remembers little of the crash besides waking up in a hospital.

Willingham purchased the scooter to avoid receiving speeding tickets while driving, but a 22-minute commute to work in October 2025 left him with far more severe consequences. Willingham survived multiple life-threatening injuries, underwent 17 surgeries and remains unable to work.

Michael Willingham (courtesy of Willingham).

Willingham's experience exposes a dangerous paradox: riders can do everything right and still end up in the hospital. What's worse is that the toy-like appearances of e-scooters and e-bikes can mask lethal physics, presenting risks that even the most cautious riders can’t control.

“You could be the best e-bike rider in the world, and then someone's on their phone texting in their car, they hit you [and] you're gone by no fault of your own,” said Dr. Carlos Sanchez, a neurosurgeon at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C.

Every day, there are an average of 17,600 e-scooter and e-bike rides in Washington, according to the District Department of Transportation’s Ride Report dashboard. Jay Mounteer, a trauma nurse practitioner at GW Hospital, sees e-scooter crash victims multiple times a week. Serious cases often involve a severe brain injury or death, she says.

Children account for 45% of electric scooter injuries, and boys under 18 account for 70% of pediatric scooter injuries, according to a study published in the journal Injury by experts at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.

In July, a nine-year-old boy who was riding an e-scooter in Herndon, Va. died after he collided with a minivan. The child was not wearing a helmet, police said. A day later, a five-year-old boy was seriously injured in a hit-and-run e-scooter crash in Southeast Washington, D.C., according to DDOT's Vision Zero Crash Dashboard.

Dr. Carlos Sanchez (courtesy of Sanchez).

“I tell parents that e-bike or that e-scooter looks like a toy, but your kid can get up to 20 miles per hour,” said Sanchez. “Those types of injuries are more like a motorcycle injury. And would you give your 14-year-old a motorcycle?” 

Tyrone King, 54, says he started riding a scooter because it was a more convenient way to get around Washington than the Metro. According to King, scooters are also easier and cheaper to maintain than a car, and are fun to ride. 

“Standing up on a scooter is like riding a magic carpet,” King said. 

King was on his way to the gym in August 2025 when a car hit him in the bike lane and knocked him off his scooter. He broke five ribs and bruised his lung. He said it took around three months to recover from his injuries. 

King says the crash could have been worse. Unlike the majority of scooter riders, King was wearing a helmet when he was hit. 

“Had I not had this helmet on, I wouldn't be here talking to you today,” King said. 

Tyrone King.

King owns five e-scooters and says he has a “passion for them.” While he rode without a helmet for the first month of using an e-scooter, he now consistently wears a helmet, gloves, elbow pads and knee pads.

Sanchez says that while many riders justify not wearing helmets because the chance of crashing is low, being “that one” person with a serious injury is all that matters.

“If you're that one, so then if you could sort of put that sort of image in your mind of like, ‘Wow, what would it be like to be in an ER, being intubated and then being brought up to an operating room and having half of your skull taken off by me?’” Sanchez said. “Would you wear that helmet?”

Willingham’s crash left him with even more serious injuries: a broken left shoulder and right elbow,  a minor concussion, and damage to his lower intestine and tibia in both of his legs. Willingham says that while he’s walking again, he’s “like a two-year-old again, taking my time.”

“Most people don't know how serious it could be, but in my case, I hope it would be an example for anybody,” Willingham said. “It's very serious.”

Jay Mounteer (courtesy of Mounteer).

Willingham advises other e-scooter riders to “think for other people” and remember that other vehicles on the road may not pay close attention to scooters or bikes around them. Mounteer also suggests that tourists new to Washington and intoxicated riders avoid scooters to avoid injury.

King suggests that enhanced bike lanes, defined by green shading and a divider from vehicles, and reduced potholes could make roads safer for e-scooter riders. These changes may be within reach — the District Department of Transportation’s Strategic Bikeways Plan, built on community feedback, will begin expanding the city’s biking infrastructure in winter 2027.

The District requires e-scooter riders to be at least 18 years old and follow the same traffic laws as other vehicles. Riders are not permitted to ride on sidewalks in the city’s central business district, according to DDOT, but the city has 120 miles of bike lanes, including 43 miles of protected bike lanes.

Mounteer agrees that protected bike lanes could deter injury. Still, she says that “we shouldn’t have the rental scooters in D.C.”

“Obviously my perspective is skewed, because I'm seeing all the injuries, but in my eyes the risk outweighs the benefit,” Mounteer said.

Sanchez adds that the injuries he sees, often preventable by helmet use, are “life-altering.”

“It's really fun to go fast, but I wish that everyone could see what we see on the other side,” Sanchez said.

Nearly a year after the crash, Willingham is still recovering. He can't work and has applied for disability payments to survive — a big departure from his life pre-crash, where he worked in armed security at the Federal Aviation Administration headquarters and made more than $100,000 per year.

“I had a really relaxed lifestyle, but now a lot is up in the air,” he says. “It's a much more difficult life now. It almost feels like I'm a whole different person.”

Shreya Jyotishi is Youthcast Media Group’s assistant manager of content and programs. She and YMG volunteer Sandy Block worked with students from Arlington Public Schools in Virginia in a journalism camp to write this story. Senior Ethan Eccker, junior Mehak Fatima and sophomore Bruce Lipscomb IV are students at Wakefield High School.  Junior Abonti Barua and sophomore Emane Ondias-Souna are students at  Washington-Liberty High School.