Two youths, years away from being able to obtain their learners permit — let alone full licence to drive on public roads in Alberta — are recovering from serious injuries after being hit in a collision Edmonton police allege they caused.
“The trouble is, they don’t have any concept of risk,” Dr. Louis Hugo Francescutti said of the mental development of young people.
“That part of the brain, through no fault of their own, has not been developed yet.”
The University of Alberta public health professor and emergency physician at the Royal Alexandra Hospital said more and more injuries are occurring from riding electric scooters, bicycles and dirt bikes.
While e-scooters and e-bikes rented from companies like Lime and Bird have their speed governed to around 20 km/h, more and more people are buying their own private ones that can reach higher speeds. Electric dirt bikes have also become popular.
“We thought e-scooters were bad but these go even faster,” Francescutti said on Friday of electric dirt bikes becoming more popular in Alberta.
“When you crash, that kinetic energy that’s stored makes all the difference — so doubling your speed quadruples the kinetic energy at the end of the collision.
“Unfortunately, we’re going to see more and more of these collisions as these bikes become more and more popular.”
A serious collision at a major intersection in southwest Edmonton on Thursday afternoon is the latest example of why doctors are calling for more awareness of the risks electric vehicles pose when in the hands of youth.
The crash happened around 2:30 p.m. at Windermere Boulevard and Terwillegar Drive, between an electric dirt bike with two kids on it and a car.
Edmonton police said the e-dirt bike was in the far-left turning lane on Windermere Blvd. eastbound, while a Ford Fusion was in the neighbouring left-turning lane.
When the advance left turn signal turned green, the Fusion went to turn left onto Terwillegar Drive northbound, as they were allowed to do.
However, police said the dirt bike beside it tried to go straight across the intersection, cutting off the car. As a result, the Ford hit the dirt bike.
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The 11-year-old boy driving the bike, and a 12-year-old boy who was a passenger, were both taken to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
Francescutti explained the human brain’s capacity for assessing risk does not finish developing until the age of 25, so kids and teenagers who hop onto electric scooters, bikes and motorcycles don’t fully understand the danger. He noted that’s why car rental companies have age limits.
“You put these bikes that are becoming cheaper and cheaper, faster and faster, in the hands of people that don’t have the ability to understand the dangers of them — that’s why you have problems.”
Police said the adult driver of the Fusion remained on scene and didn’t report any injuries.
The busy intersection was closed for much of the afternoon as the major collision unit investigated the crash, leading to rush hour gridlock in that corner of the city.
The crash in Windermere came two weeks after another serious e-dirt bike crash in the Edmonton region prompted RCMP to speak out.
A teenager was hit with nearly $1,400 in fines after he allegedly crashed his electric dirt bike into the side of an SUV in St. Albert on Thursday, Aug. 27.
It’s illegal to drive dirt bikes — electric or gas-powered — on public roads, RCMP reminded, adding the majority of the riders its officers are encountering are youths.
Underage riders and their parents both risk substantial fines, seizure of the bike and could face criminal charges.
Education efforts and enforcement are commendable, Francescutti said, but noted police can’t be everywhere.
He said the onus falls on parents to make smart decisions — either not buy electric dirt bikes for kids who are too young to safely drive them, or enforce strict rules about who can ride them, when and where.
“E-dirt bikes are not toys,” Francescutti stressed. “If you give them to one of your kids thinking that it’s going to just keep them occupied, it will — but it will also increase the likelihood that you’re going to be getting a call one day that your son or daughter have been seriously injured.”
And that’s if they survive, the doctor said.
“The most serious ones would probably not come to the emergency department. They’d go straight to the coroner’s office.”
The majority of trauma deaths occur at the scene of the injury, the experienced Edmonton physician pointed out.
Hospitalizations among children and adults riding e-scooters have risen by almost 40 per cent in the last year, according to data released in August by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).
Data showed the number of kids 15 years of age and under hospitalized for e-scooter injuries jumped from 54 youth in 2024-25 to 150 in 2025-26. Among those injured in 2025-26, 122 were boys and 28 were girls.
Head and brain injuries and fractures were among the most common reasons.
Francescutti said with e-scooters, common injuries include broken wrists, dislocated shoulders and road rash abrasions from crashing with skin exposed.
He also cited concussions, neck injuries and other head wounds as a common issue, noting many riders don’t wear helmets.
“What we see in the emergency department are the ones that survive or barely survive and then come to us. So you have to understand that as the speed increases, especially if they’re not wearing helmets, the likelihood that we’re gonna see fatalities or serious injuries is gonna increase.”
A different report by the Canadian Paediatric Surveillance Program (CPSP) stated 10 Canadian youths died from injuries sustained during both e-scooter and e-bike use in 2025.
Youth aged 10 to 15 were 42 per cent of the cases reported by pediatricians or emergency physicians, with 18 per cent among those five to nine years old. According to the data, the average age for incidents was 10 to 12.
“For every fatality, you know there’s gonna be thousands of other injuries as well,” Francescutti said.
Among the most common injuries found in the CPSP’s data were to the head at 47 per cent and limbs at 40 per cent.
In addition, data from July 2026 from CIHI states that last year saw a 22 per cent spike in hospitalizations from e-scooter injuries across the country.
Francescutti doesn’t expect the e-dirt bike trend to change any time soon.
“These bikes are just becoming popular now. I suspect before winter arrives we’re going to see a lot more, and I suspect next year is when it’s really going to peak.”
