Minnesota doctors urge caution on e-bikes and e-scooters, amid increased injuries
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Twin Cities doctors say they’re seeing steep rises in injuries from e-bike and e-scooter crashes.
Doctors at Regions Hospital in St. Paul say they’ve tracked an 800 percent increase in hospital admissions due to e-bike accidents since 2023.
Pediatric Trauma Program Manager Colleen Wood said she’s particularly worried about kids and teens, who made up about a third of those patients in 2025. She said many are disregarding safety practices — like skipping helmets, riding tandem and using bikes and scooters that they’re not old enough or big enough for.
“These aren’t toys, they’re motorized vehicles,” Wood said during a news conference at Gillette Children’s hospital in St. Paul on Tuesday.
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She was joined by Danielle Michels of Chippewa Falls, Wis., who started advocating for better e-bike and e-scooter safety after her 14-year-old daughter, Stella, died of injuries from an e-scooter accident.
The crash happened on a family camping trip in 2024, Michels said. Stella had forgotten her helmet, but Michels and her husband told her she could go for a ride if she went slow. She fell and sustained a brain injury. Stella was treated in the hospital for five months, before she ultimately died of a brain infection.
Speaking alongside doctors on Tuesday, Michels said she wants parents to “make safety cool” and always make sure their kids wear helmets.
“This can happen to anyone,” Michels said. “We were careful parents. Stella was responsible. We never imagined something like this would happen to our family, but all it took was one ride without a helmet.”
Doctors at Regions and Gillette Children’s said most of their patients from e-bike or e-scooter crashes weren’t wearing helmets. Those who did wear helmets were more likely to have minor injuries.
Doctors and bike experts said following personal safety guidelines is important — but said staying safe depends on infrastructure and regulations, too.
Michael Wojcik is the executive director of the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota.
“We really need to push our state, federal, local officials to build safer infrastructure,” Wojcik said. “We understand that helmets are an important part of a safe ecosystem. It can help to prevent tragedies like this. But we support an entire systems approach that is going to work to make everyone safer overall.”
He said that means building safer roads, and regulating the size and design of motor vehicles.
Wojcik also said he’s concerned about “e-motos” — electric vehicles more similar to motorcycles — being marketed as e-bikes. They may look like e-bikes, but they can go faster than state e-bike regulations allow.
“We believe that a big part of the increase in crashes are actually parents unwittingly buying unsafe devices that are not e-bikes,” Wojcik said.
Doctors said parents should always assess whether their kids are ready to handle the extra speed and weight of e-bikes and e-scooters. In Minnesota, it’s illegal for kids under 15 to ride e-bikes, and for kids under 12 to ride e-scooters. Some cities have also passed their own regulations requiring helmets.
And doctors said adults should also be careful. Experts at Regions Hospital said adults should always wear helmets when riding bikes or scooters, and avoid riding while intoxicated.
“The intoxicated individual riding home on an e-scooter is a frequent occurrence in the emergency department,” Regions Trauma Director Patei Iyegha said.
Experts said they don’t want to discourage e-bike and e-scooter use altogether. That echoes the findings of a recent study from Minnesota’s Department of Transportation and Department of Public Safety, which noted that bikes and e-bikes are still safer than cars, and said there are benefits to young people having access to easy transportation.
But doctors said riders should use more caution than they do on non-electric bikes and scooters.
“It’s about awareness and prevention,” Wood said. “Helmets matter, age-appropriate use matters, education and supervision matter.”
