Rideshare electric scooters for which you pay an hourly or day rate to borrow a public-use electric scooter to use on a college campus or crowded Virginia city – are becoming more and more popular. These fun, convenient modes of transportation are especially popular among teens and younger adults.
But with the increased usage of rideshare electric scooters since 2017, both hospital emergency rooms and doctors are seeing alarming trends. In just the past three years, head and neck injuries from riding electric scooters have increased 4.5 times! Of the types of injuries reported, injuries to internal organs, ,like a traumatic brain injury (TBI) make up 32.5% of all injuries sustained on an electric scooter since 2017.
What is a traumatic brain injury and what should you do if you sustain one after riding an electric scooter? Keep reading to learn more.
What is a Traumatic Brain Injury?
A traumatic brain injury, also known as a TBI, is a serious head injury. It is often an “invisible injury” because even though you may have suffered a blow to your head – such as when falling off a rideshare electric scooter – you may not have any noticeable lacerations or contusions on your head to tell you there is something wrong.
However, TBIs have other symptoms that soon appear, including:
- Loss of consciousness after hitting one’s head.
- Feeling dizzy or “out of it.”
- Having a headache, or feeling nauseated or vomiting.
- Feeling agitated or expressing unusual behaviors or emotions.
- Having slurred speech.
- Feeling dizzy or as if you’ve lost your balance or coordination.
- Having blurred vision or ringing in your ears.
- Having difficulty finding and saying the words you want to use in conversations.
- Feeling depressed or anxious.
- Having convulsions or seizures.
- Being unable to be awoken from sleep.
- Feeling weakness or numbness in your extremities.
If you experience any of these symptoms after falling off or crashing on a rideshare electric scooter, you need to seek immediate medical attention. It’s possible that your crash caused a traumatic brain injury, which could have long-lasting impacts on your health, and if left untreated, even result in your death.
How Do TBI Attorneys Like Us Help Victims Like You?
Sometimes, the cause of an electric scooter-related TBI is the result of another person’s careless operation of the vehicle. It could have also been caused by maintenance of the electronic scooter that caused it to malfunction even though you were using it properly. Alternatively, it could have been dangerous road conditions that were known about and carelessly left unresolved, which resulted in your electric scooter crash.
If you injure your head after riding an electronic soccer, especially a rideshare electric scooter, you should:
- Seek emergency medical attention for your injuries.
- Take photos of the scene of the crash, including anyone who ran into you or any road hazards that created the crash, etc.
- Take photos of the electric scooter after the crash, showing any damage or faulty aspects of it.
- Note the make, model, and owner of the electric scooter, which is especially important if it was a rideshare scooter.
- Document and keep any safety equipment you were using to prevent injury to yourself, such as a helmet.
Your next step is to meet with a TBI attorney like us. We are extremely experienced at helping the victims of traumatic brain injuries navigate the complicated legal system to receive medical cost coverage for injuries caused by electric scooters and rideshare companies, municipalities or commercial properties that had known road hazards that were never addressed, and more. We are here for you to provide a free case evaluation and determine whether or not another party was responsible for your traumatic brain injury and should pay for your medical bills, pain and suffering, and other compensation.
Contact Us for a Traumatic Brain Injury Consultation Today
If you received a TBI after riding an electric scooter, such as one from a ridesharing program, we’re here to help you. Contact us for a free case evaluation at (703) 813-6460 or fill out our online contact form.