People who fall off scooters should try to shield their heads with their arms before they hit the ground, experts say.
No, really.
A new study out of China, published this week, said scooter riders are “prone to various single-vehicle accidents, such as collisions with fixed obstacles and falls due to mechanical failures”.
But despite this, many riders don’t bother with safety measures, the study found.
With scooters growing in popularity thanks to app-based services like Lime, so are reports of scooter accidents.
The researchers watched ‘fail’ videos online and reconstructed crash scenarios using computers, such as hitting signposts, cars and pedestrians.
The full paper is behind a paywall, but reportedly they concluded “simply raising the arms to cover the head while in the air” was an effective way of avoiding a skull fracture or brain damage, even more so if the rider wasn’t wearing a helmet.
Similar research earlier this year found more than half of all head injuries sustained in scooter crashes were to the forehead, and nearly half to the face. Potholes were particularly to blame.
The new research found about half of all head-related injuries resulted in skull fractures.
