'Really scary': E-bike, e-scooter injuries growing quickly in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS — Speaking from his room at a Las Vegas hospital on Nov. 19, 16-year-old Mason Huff had a message for anyone who rides an e-scooter.

“Wear a helmet and stay vigilant,” Huff said, just after taking an allotment of pain medications. “Anything can switch up on you at any time.”

Two days prior, Huff, a student at Lake Havasu High School in Arizona, was riding his e-scooter near his home in Lake Havasu City when he was struck by an SUV.

Huff, who was not wearing a helmet, suffered multiple injuries, including a broken collarbone, a cracked skull, brain bleed, and damage to one of his hips. Because the nearest trauma center was located in Las Vegas, Huff was taken to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center by helicopter.

Huff, who was alert and upbeat during a phone interview two days after the crash, represents just one in a string of recent serious or fatal e-scooter or e-bike crashes that have ties to Southern Nevada.

The teen’s mother, Amanda Huff, said she feels lucky that Mason has the opportunity to tell his story and warn others about the dangers of the many variations of e-devices being operated by young people all over the country.

“It’s been a really scary situation,” Amanda Huff said. “With a brain bleed, we didn’t know, at first, what was going to happen. I think our kids need more road safety education.”

Growing number of patients

According to John Pope, vice president of trauma services at Sunrise Hospital, a growing number of patients with e-device-related injuries have been coming through the trauma center doors there.

As of mid-November, the Sunrise Hospital trauma center had treated over 170 patients with injuries related to the use of e-scooters or e-bikes in 2025. Pope said he expects the number to rise to well over 200 before the end of the year.

“When we dug into the numbers, it was surprising,” Pope said. “And in many of the injuries, these patients were bad enough to be admitted to the hospital, which is a serious injury.”

In fact, of the 170-plus patients, about 75 percent had injuries serious enough to require a hospital admission, Pope said.

“In the trauma world, we look at what’s called an injury severity score,” Pope said. “That’s a figure we use to determine how injured a person is. If you have a head injury, you’re going to have a much higher score. Generally speaking, we’re seeing a lot of head injuries with people we’re treating.”

At the trauma center across town at University Medical Center, the statistics show more of the same.

Through the first 10 months of 2025, the UMC Trauma Center treated nearly 190 injured e-scooter or e-bike riders, according to the hospital.

‘I don’t think parents understand how dangerous these e-scooters and e-bikes are’

Last year, UMC treated just 160 such patients. For 2023, the total was 97. Dr. Deborah Kuhls, chief of trauma at UMC, called the statistics “horrifying.”

“Over the past three years or so, we’ve seen over a 400 percent increase,” Kuhls said. “These e-scooters and e-bikes can travel at high speeds and there’s really no training required. I don’t think parents understand how dangerous these e-scooters and e-bikes are.”

According to Metropolitan Police Department statistics, five e-scooter riders and another three e-bike riders died as a result of crashes from Jan. 1 through Nov. 16. Of those eight fatalities, five crashes were deemed to be caused by “e-bike/scooter error,” according to Metro.

E-scooter and e-bike riders aren’t just suffering injuries, either. Some are losing their lives.

In September, Jovonn “JoJo” Magee-Thomas, 12, died after being struck by a vehicle while riding an e-scooter in central Las Vegas.

In October, 10-year-old Marquis Abraha died after being struck by a pickup while riding an e-scooter in east Las Vegas. Another child who was riding on the scooter with Abraha was not seriously injured.

It’s not only children and teens who are suffering injuries or dying. This month, 22-year-old Wyatt Holiday of Las Vegas was struck and killed in Boulder City while riding a e-scooter, according to the Nevada Highway Patrol.

Police: ‘We need the community to help’

In May, the Clark County Commission unanimously approved an ordinance designed to regulate the use of e-bikes, e-scooters and motorcycles on unincorporated Clark County land.

The rules limit speeds to 15 mph and require helmets for all riders under the age of 18.

Municipalities can have their own rules. Boulder City, for instance, established a new code in September that is slightly stronger than the county code in some areas.

But gray areas remain as regulators and communities attempt to make policies designed to keep riders — and others, including pedestrians — safe.

“The e-scooters and the e-bicycles are, for the most part, legal,” said officer Robert Wicks, a Metro spokesman. “Anything that goes under 28 mph is pretty much legal to be on our roadways.”

But anything that goes faster than that, Wicks pointed out, needs to be registered, and its owner has to carry insurance. It would also need certain safety accessories, such as mirrors and possibly taillights.

Wicks and others said that it can be difficult to police riders of the electric devices. Riders can try to elude police on devices that veer off onto alternative routes easily and police then have to make a decision of whether or not to chase the person.

Wicks also said that some young people ride small motorcycles, which can reach speeds of 50 mph or higher, on trails, roads and sidewalks. Those, he said, tend to be even more dangerous than e-scooters and e-bikes.

“This is something we’re aware of, but we need the community to help,” Wicks said. “We need parents to help. We need parents to get the correct bike or scooter for their child and they need to make sure they’re not getting a motorcycle that isn’t street-safe for their kid.”

A ‘very serious’ problem, lawmaker says

Before the Nevada Legislature’s special session this month, Assemblyman Reuben D’Silva, a Democrat who represents a district that includes parts of Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he hoped e-device legislation would come up during the session.

But that didn’t happen. D’Silva, who has a day job as an educator at Rancho High School, said he understands that there are safety issues surrounding e-devices.

“It would have been an appropriate place to put some e-scooter regulatory language or something forward,” D’Silva said. “This has become a very serious — a paramount — problem in the minds of a lot of Nevadans, especially those living in Las Vegas.”

D’Silva said traffic-related issues have been a priority for many of his constituents since he first took office in 2022.

“People might think it’s jobs, the economy, or education, but it’s always been traffic in my district,” he said. “That’s the No. 1 issue. We didn’t have time to fully vet a statewide policy during the special session.”

Proper safety gear

Sgt. John Glenn of the Boulder City Police Department said children who are middle school-aged and older represent some of his biggest concerns.

Many of those riders, he said, don’t wear helmets while riding e-scooters or wear them incorrectly, sometimes hanging them off the handlebars of their device.

Glenn said he was pleased that a recently passed e-scooter ordinance in Boulder City requires riders to have a bell or some type of audio warning to get the attention of pedestrians, who technically have the right of way on a sidewalk.

“These are basically vehicles when they’re on the road,” Glenn said. “These are not the scooters or bikes of yesteryear. What people don’t think about is if you hit a pedestrian with one of these, you’re going to do some damage. There are some kids out there doing silly things.”

A few days after the crash that injured Mason, the Huff family was back in Arizona.

Amanda Huff said she hopes some young people and families can learn from her son’s scary experience.

“I think our kids need more road safety education,” she said. “The headphones and the earbuds, turn them off when you’re riding. Parents — know the laws and buy your kid a helmet.”

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