Rihanna is the latest A-lister to have an accident on her two-wheeled electric vehicle. The singer was photographed with bruises on her face when she was spotted in a car near a Los Angeles restaurant on Friday, PEOPLE reported.
Rihanna’s rep confirmed what had happened, telling the magazine in a statement, “Rihanna is completely fine now but flipped over on an electric scooter last week and bruised her forehead and face.”
It’s not known what type of electric scooter Rihanna was riding, or if she was wearing a helmet when she took her tumble.
Just a few weeks ago, music mogul Simon Cowell broke his back in three places after falling off his e-bike. Cowell, a judge on America’s Got Talent, missed damaging his spinal cord by a centimeter, had to undergo several hours of surgery, and will require intense physiotherapy to help him recover.
In July, CBS news reporter Nina Kapur was killed while riding without a helmet as a passenger on a Revel electric scooter in New York City. Kapur was thrown from the passenger seat of the scooter when the driver lost control while swerving to avoid a car.
Of course, it’s not only celebrities who fall off their electric scooters and e-bikes; it’s just that those accidents are the ones that make headlines.
A couple of weeks after Kapur’s death, another Revel scooter accident turned fatal. Jeremy Malave suffered severe head trauma when he lost control of his scooter and hit a light post in the center median in the Queens section of New York City. (It’s not clear whether Malave was wearing a helmet.)
Another man, Francis Nunez, crashed into a light pole in upper Manhattan while riding a Revel scooter without a helmet. He later died from his injuries.
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The fatalities prompted Revel to temporarily suspend its service in New York City. The company wrote on Twitter that it was “reviewing and strengthening our rider accountability and safety measures.” Revel resumed its New York City service at the end of August with some new safety measures in place, such as a requisite 20-minute safety training class (via smartphone) before using a scooter. All riders must also use the Revel app to take a photo of themselves wearing a helmet before riding.
Electric scooter and e-bike injuries have spiked in recent years. According to Forbes, US hospitals admitted nearly 3,300 people suffering scooter-related injuries between 2014 and 2018, a 365% increase from prior years, when the scooters were not available.
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A recent study carried out by the Public Health and Transportation departments in Austin, Texas, in association with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), serves as another warning about electric scooter safety. From early September to late November 2018 in Austin, 190 people experienced injuries while riding e-scooters that required treatment by an emergency center or emergency medical services. The researchers believe many other injuries may have received urgent care or lesser treatment as well.
Nearly half (45%) of the confirmed injuries were head injuries, which makes a strong case for wearing a helmet. “We know from bicycle-related injuries and deaths that helmet use reduces the risk of head and brain injuries in the event of a bicycle crash Helmet use might also reduce the risk of head and brain injuries in the event of a dockless electric scooter crash,” said the CDC’s Laurel Harduar Morano, PhD, MPH, in a media release about the study.
A-lister or not, take note.
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