Crashes Involving Electric Personal Mobility Devices (ePMD) Reported by the French Police: Types of Crashes, Users Involved, Injuries and Explanatory Factors

Abstract

Abstract The growth of mobility via Electric Personal Mobility Devices (ePMD) has been associated with an increased number of crashes. The French police were asked to report crashes resulting in injury or death in a post-crash survey. We have retrieved the databases of crashes reported by the French police in 2019, 2020 and 2021. This article reports on the contribution of the various categories of vehicles to the crashes recorded in France, and the parameters of ePMD crashes in France: types of crashes, periods, contexts and departments involved; age, gender, protective equipment, injuries of the users concerned by these ePMD crashes, etc. Compared to 2019, ePMD was the main category of users with an increasing number of crashes in 2020 and in 2021. Nearly three quarters of all ePMD crashes were a collision with a car, ePMD users crashed alone in 14% of cases, or hit a pedestrian (9.2%). ePMD users involved in crashes without helmets were younger on average than those wearing helmets. Males and females wore helmets with a similar frequency. When they collided with another user, ePMDs usually injured vulnerable road users such as pedestrians. When they collided with a vehicle not driven by a vulnerable user (protected by their vehicle body), ePMD users were more likely to be injured than the non-vulnerable user. The contexts of ePMD crashes, differences between crash types and user categories are discussed. Finally, results provide guidance for public policy and prevention campaigns (e.g., geographical areas that should be targeted).