The recent death of a city official in a scooter collision, alongside riders landing in the ER “every week” has trauma experts questioning whether rental e-scooters should be allowed.
Facing high maternal mortality rates, the District made doula care free for Medicaid patients. But experts say the benefit isn't working out in practice.
Fall markets, a bald meet-up, and more ways to get outside this weekend.
The recent death of a city official in a scooter collision, alongside riders landing in the ER “every week” has trauma experts questioning whether rental e-scooters should be allowed.
By Shreya Jyotishi, Abonti Barua, Ethan Eccker, Mehak Fatima, Bruce Lipscomb IV and Emane Ondias-Souna
Last Friday, Talib Shakir, D.C.’s director of returning citizens affairs, was killed in an e-scooter collision in Southeast Washington. The tragic death of Shakir, whom deputy mayor Lindsey O. Appiah called, on social media, a “good man and a tremendous public servant,” has reopened a crucial conversation in the District about e-scooter safety.
Every day, there are an average of 12,000 e-scooter rides in Washington, according to the District Department of Transportation’s Ride Report dashboard. And every week, several of these riders end up in the ER at GW Hospital, according to Jay Mounteer, a trauma nurse practitioner who works there. Serious cases often involve a severe brain injury or death. “Obviously my perspective is skewed, because I'm seeing all the injuries, but in my eyes the risk [of e-scooters] outweighs the benefit,” Mounteer said.
Shakir’s death is not the first e-scooter-related fatality in the region this year. And other lives have been permanently altered by e-scooter accidents: 48-year-old Silver Spring resident Michael Willingham’s third e-scooter ride nearly killed him. After a truck driver ran a red light and struck him at an intersection in Southwest in October 2025, Willingham survived multiple life-threatening injuries, underwent 17 surgeries, and remains unable to work.
“I was following the rules of the road, going by the street lights and all of that,” Willingham said. “But nowhere in my mind was I paying attention to something else coming at me so fast.”
Willingham isn’t alone. People on e-scooters get hurt far more often than people in cars: The rate of injury on e-scooters is 175 to 200 times higher than in motor vehicles, according to a 2021 analysis published in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine.
As millions of U.S. e-scooter riders take the streets per year, the annual number of injuries is increasing, too. Nationally, e-scooter trauma admissions nearly doubled from 2021 to 2023, according to a study by professors from Howard University College of Medicine.
Children under 18 account for 45% of e-scooter injuries, and boys account for nearly three-quarters of those injuries, according to a study in the journal Injury. Additional research presented at a national surgical conference last month found that almost two-thirds of injured e-scooter riders under 16 sustained major injuries.
In July, a nine-year-old boy who was riding an e-scooter in Herndon, Va. died after he collided with a minivan. The child was not wearing a helmet, police said (neither were Shakir and the other e-scooter rider involved in the collision last week, according to early reports). A day later, a five-year-old boy was seriously injured in a hit-and-run e-scooter crash in Southeast.
“Your kid can get up to 20 miles per hour [on an e-scooter],” said Dr. Carlos Sanchez, an attending neurosurgeon and associate program director of GW Hospital’s residency program. “Those types of injuries are more like a motorcycle injury. And would you give your 14-year-old a motorcycle?”
Tyrone King, 54, says he started riding a scooter because it was a more convenient way to get around D.C. than the Metro. According to King, scooters are also easier and cheaper to maintain than a car, and are fun to ride.
“Standing up on a scooter is like riding a magic carpet,” King said.
King was on his way to the gym in August 2025 when a car hit him in the bike lane and knocked him off his scooter. He broke five ribs and bruised his lung. He said it took around three months to recover from his injuries.
King says the crash could have been worse. Unlike the majority of scooter riders, King was wearing a helmet when he was hit. (He now wears head-to-toe safety gear when he rides.)
“Had I not had this helmet on, I wouldn't be here talking to you today,” King said.
Other studies found that those injured are seldom wearing helmets. In one California emergency department, just 4% of injured e-scooter riders wore helmets during their rides. As a result, the proportion of head injuries is high.
Sanchez says that while many riders justify not wearing helmets because the chance of crashing is low, being “that one” person with a serious injury is all that matters.
“If you could put that image in your mind of like, ‘Wow, what would it be like to be in an ER, being intubated and then being brought up to an operating room and having half of your skull taken off by me?’” Sanchez said. With that image in mind, “Would you wear that helmet?” he asked.
Willingham’s crash left him with even more serious injuries: a broken left shoulder and right elbow, two broken legs, a minor concussion, and damage to his lower intestine. Willingham says that while he’s walking again, he’s “like a two-year-old again, taking my time.”
“Most people don't know how serious it could be, but in my case, I hope it would be an example for anybody,” Willingham said. “It's very serious.”
Willingham advises other e-scooter riders to “think for other people” and remember that other vehicles on the road may not pay close attention to scooters or bikes around them. Mounteer also suggests that tourists new to Washington and intoxicated riders don’t use scooters to avoid injury.
Scooter vendors are also adding technology to prevent rider behaviors that increase risks of injury. E-bike and e-scooter company Lime announced in September that it has invested $17 million this year in D.C.’s e-scooter program, including on safety improvements like new scooters and built-in restrictions on underaged riders, multiple riders on one scooter, and sidewalk riding. Lime is also investing in deterring another type of risk associated with e-scooters — their use as getaway vehicles for criminals.
The D.C. government is also attempting to make e-scooter riders and pedestrians safer. The Department of Transportation’s Strategic Bikeways Plan will begin expanding the city’s biking infrastructure in winter 2027. The District has also adapted rider rules alongside the growth of e-scooters. E-scooter riders must be at least 18 years old and follow the same traffic laws as other vehicles. Riders are not permitted to ride on sidewalks in the city’s central business district, according to DDOT, but the city has 120 miles of bike lanes, including 43 miles of protected bike lanes.
Mounteer agrees that protected bike lanes could deter injury. Still, she says that “we shouldn’t have the rental scooters in D.C.”
Sanchez adds that the injuries he sees, often preventable by helmet use, are “life-altering.”
“It's really fun to go fast, but I wish that everyone could see what we see on the other side,” Sanchez said.
Facing high maternal mortality rates, the District made doula care free for Medicaid patients. But experts say the benefit isn't working out in practice.
As the iconic U Street Ethiopian restaurant prepares to close, thousands on social media shared their praise and memories
The outlet is pitching its newly robust metro section with ads and activations around town
The presumptive mayor is pledging a new approach. But can she push past critics?
With your help, we pursue stories that hold leaders to account, demystify opaque city and civic processes, and celebrate the idiosyncrasies that make us proud to call D.C. home. Put simply, our mission is to make it easier — and more fun — to live in the District. Our members help keep local news free and independent for all:
