How Many People Die in E-Scooter Crashes in Britain Each Year?

Quick answer: In 2024, 6 people were killed in collisions involving e-scooters in Great Britain, according to the Department for Transport (DfT). There were 1,312 collisions involving e-scooters and 1,390 casualties in those collisions. Five of the six people killed were e-scooter riders, and the sixth was a pedestrian, while an estimated 444 people were seriously injured.

The 2024 e-scooter toll

DfT's e-scooter factsheet for 2024 is based on final police data, and it paints a picture of a small but persistent casualty toll. The headline figures barely moved from 2023, which is itself part of the story: e-scooter casualties levelled off rather than falling.

• 6 people killed in collisions involving e-scooters in 2024, the same number as in 2023
• 5 of those killed were e-scooter riders, and 1 was a pedestrian
• 1,312 collisions involving e-scooters, compared with 1,292 in 2023
• 1,390 casualties in those collisions, compared with 1,387 in 2023
• 444 people seriously injured and 940 slightly injured, on DfT's best estimate after adjusting for changes in police reporting

The total casualty count has been broadly flat for two years, after rising from 2020, when e-scooters were first recorded in the STATS19 system, to a peak around 2022. DfT notes that casualties tend to be higher in the summer months.

Who was hurt

Most people hurt in e-scooter collisions are the riders themselves, but they are not the only ones. Of the 1,390 casualties in 2024:

• 1,096 were e-scooter users, including the 5 riders killed and 366 seriously injured
• 218 were pedestrians, including the 1 pedestrian killed and 59 seriously injured
• 47 were pedal cyclists, none of them killed
• 29 were motorcyclists or occupants of cars, vans, buses or other vehicles, none of them killed

E-scooter users are classed by DfT as vulnerable road users, because they have no vehicle body around them and are harder for drivers to see. Of the casualties recorded through the injury-based reporting system, the most common serious injuries were fractures of the arm, collarbone or hand, fractures of the lower leg, ankle or foot, and head injuries.

Casualties were more often male than female, especially among riders aged between 10 and 39. Casualties other than riders were spread across all age groups, with the largest groups aged between 40 and 59.

When and where

E-scooter casualties follow the rhythm of the working day. DfT's analysis by time of day shows numbers rising from 6am, with two peaks, one at 8am and one at around 4pm to 5pm, then falling away through the evening. That pattern held in both 2023 and 2024, and it points to commuting and school and college travel as much as leisure use.

Geography is uneven. The Metropolitan Police area, covering London, accounted for 279 casualties involving e-scooters in 2024, around a fifth of the British total. Hampshire recorded 116, the West Midlands 80 and Avon and Somerset 73. Higher numbers tend to appear in areas where a rental trial is running, which is expected: that is where more e-scooters are on the road.

Trial areas and private scooters

Rental e-scooters run in government-approved trial areas, around 20 of them across England. Distinguishing trial scooters from private scooters in police reports is difficult, because the type is recorded in a free text field and is often left blank.

What DfT can say from location is striking: in 2024, 656 e-scooter user casualties were estimated to have happened outside trial areas, compared with 440 within or close to a trial area while a trial was running. Some of those within trial areas will have been riding private scooters, so the true number of rental scooter casualties is lower than 440.

Single-vehicle collisions are a large part of the picture. Of all collisions involving e-scooters in 2024, 306 involved only one e-scooter and no other vehicle, up from 284 in 2023. Falls and loss of control therefore account for nearly a quarter of e-scooter collisions, before any other road user is involved.

What the figures do not show

Six deaths is a small number, and small numbers bounce around from year to year: the same total in 2023 and 2024 does not prove the risk is fixed. The casualty total is also limited to collisions reported to the police, and DfT warns that the split between rental and private scooters cannot be estimated with confidence, especially in London, where the scooter type was recorded in very few cases.

What the figures do establish is scale. E-scooter collisions are a small fraction of Britain's overall road toll, 6 deaths out of 1,602 road deaths in 2024, but they injure well over a thousand people a year, most of them riders, and a substantial minority of them pedestrians who never chose to ride one. For local context, see UK road accidents by council area, today's accident reports and more articles.

How these numbers were counted

All figures in this article come from the Department for Transport's Reported road casualties Great Britain: e-scooter factsheet 2024, based on final police data supplied up to 1 September 2025 and recorded through the STATS19 system.

A death in these statistics means a person who died within 30 days of a reported collision on a public road. The figures cover Great Britain, meaning England, Scotland and Wales, not Northern Ireland. E-scooters are not a designated vehicle type in STATS19, so they are identified from a free text field in police reports, which is one reason the rental and private split is uncertain.

Figures for seriously and slightly injured casualties are DfT's best estimates after adjusting for changes in how some police forces record injury severity. Fatality counts are not adjusted in the same way. Only collisions reported to the police are included, and slight injuries are known to be under-reported.