Electric scooter riders are three times more likely to suffer traumatic brain injuries than motorcyclists, according to an analysis of more than 15,000 accidents in England and Wales.

Brain injuries accounted for more than a third of adult injuries on e-scooters, but riders also sustained more internal organ and blood vessel damage than did motorcyclists or pedal cyclists, the study found.

The research was headed by David Bodansky, a consultant hand, trauma and orthopaedic surgeon who analysed injuries from e-scooter, motorbike and bicycle collisions in 18 cities in England and Wales between 2020 and 2022.

Bodansky also found e-scooter riders were 1.5 times more likely to injure internal organs than motorbike riders, and they fared worse than cyclists for these injuries.

The authors recommended increasing e-scooter safety through measures including mandatory helmet legislation, stricter speed limits, and e-scooter design improvements such as enhanced braking.

General and trauma surgeon Chris Wakeman told Morning Report he was not surprised by the findings.

The trend over the last 15 years since e-scooters arrived in New Zealand has been a lot of injuries, and head injuries were predominant.

"Lack of helmet use is very common."

He wanted to see the mandatory use of helmets as well as speed limits.

Helmet use had been made compulsory for cyclists years ago, Wakeman said.

People were being injured every week, including trauma injuries that required hospital treatment and sometimes resulted in deaths.

"Any multi-trauma is always frustrating because multi-trauma is lack of judgement quite often."

Wakeman said one problem was people using them at night, often to avoid driving under the influence of alcohol.

It was another example of the increase in injuries people suffered when alcohol was involved.

"Transitioning from roads to pavements to cycleways is also an issue."

He was also worried about two or three teens aboard the scooters at the same time which unbalanced the scooters and was a breach of what they were designed for.