The Alfred hospital said admittance to its trauma centre from e-scooter and e-bike injuries nearly doubled in twelve months, with only 24 trauma centre admissions and five intensive care cases at the same time last year.

“There’s an extremely worrying trend of people using these e-bikes and scooters under influence and of drugs and alcohol,” trauma services acting director Associate Professor Joseph Mathew said.

“Further to that, a number of people choosing not to wear safety gear such as helmets.

“What people don’t realise is the normal protection that a car offers with seatbelts, airbags is not available on the motorbikes or e-bikes or scooters.

“When you come off at 20 to 30 kilometres per hour without any protection, you fall and you have devastating injuries.”

A 20-year-old e-scooter rider died in February this year after he collided with a station wagon on the Princes Highway southeast of Melbourne.

An e-scooter rental scheme has been trialled in the City of Melbourne, Port Phillip and Yarra, allowing people to ride hired scooters in bike lanes, on low-speed roads and shared paths.

VicRoads says many people have been riding e-scooters illegally on roads and footpaths, putting safety at risk.

-AAP